Collection of sports fund riles Hry pvt schools

CHANDIGARH: Students of private schools in Haryana will have to bear the burden of sportspersons if one goes by the recent circular issued by the state department of school education to the management of over 20,000 institutes.
According to the circular, each student from classes I to XII will have to pay Rs 10 to Rs 90 as sports fund. The department has also asked the school managements to deposit the funds of last five years, including two years of Covid, when the regular classes were suspended.
As per the calculations, each school having the student strength between 1,000 and 1,500 will have to pay at least Rs 1 lakh to the state education department as arrears.
Irked over the circular, managements of private schools have decided to take up a legal fight.
School managements termed the sports policy faulty and claimed that the number of students participating in the sports activities from each school is almost negligible.
“We are really shocked on receiving this communication from the education department. Ultimately, parents of the students studying in our schools will have to pay for it. Just imagine our situation when we would take this up with them. How would we justify this demand to parents, whose kids have never indulged in sports activities,” said Saurabh Kapoor, an official spokesperson of the Haryana Progressive Private Schools Association.
“We have decided to take up this issue with the government at the level of director, school education, as well as the education minister. If this does not work out, we would be left with no option other than availing legal remedies by challenging this recovery,” he added.
Meanwhile, repeated attempts to contact Anshaj Singh, director, school education, and education minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar failed to elicit response. However, education department officials confirmed the communication made to schools. “This is an old policy which the schools had been following for years,” they said.
Notably, this appears to be another source of funding devised by the sports and youth welfare department. As of now, the excise policy too has envisaged sports cess on the production and sale of liquor and beer in the state.