For many, there may be no apparent connection between crop prices and private school enrolments, but for those in this primarily sugarcane-growing district of western Uttar Pradesh, the link is obvious.
Shamli saw a mushrooming of private English-medium schools with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) affiliation during the period from 2007-08 to 2012-13, when the Uttar Pradesh government raised its State Advised Price (SAP) for sugarcane from Rs 125 to Rs 280 per quintal. The number of such schools trebled from eight to 24, out of which 12 were in Shamli itself and the rest in smaller towns of the district, like Thanabhawan, Jhinjhana, Unn, Jalalabad, Kairana and Kandhla.
These schools are now facing a financial crisis, with the cane SAP remaining unchanged since the 2012-13 sugar season and mills unable to pay even this to farmers. Suryavir Singh, the chairman of the co-educational CBSE-affiliated B.S.M School in Shamli, claims that every private school in the district is saddled with outstanding fee dues, ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.
“This is largely a rural belt whose economy is based on sugarcane. At least 70 per cent of the students are from villages in and around Shamli. When farmers don’t get paid, we are also affected,” says Singh, whose own school has fees-cum-transport charge arrears of Rs 42.5 lakh.
According to him, during the boom period when farmers had money and were willing to spend on education for their children, each school was adding 100-200 students every year. But in the last three years, around 50-100 children have been dropping out annually and going back to studying in the government school at their villages.
Shamli has 76,500-odd farming families who supplied 193.11 lakh quintals of cane to the district’s three sugar mills during the recent 2015-16 season. While this cane was worth Rs 538.46 crore at the SAP of Rs 280/quintal, farmers have so far got only Rs 247.02 crore. Not receiving timely payments, which has been a common feature all through the last three years, has severely hit their spending power.
“We cannot force farmers to pay, as their financial condition has really deteriorated,” says Yogendra Malik, manager of Maharaja Surajmal Public School, which is 6 km from Shamli town and has around 700 students, from nursery to Class XII.
This school, run by the Delhi-based Surajmal Memorial Education Society and catering largely to the Jat community, currently has fee arrears of Rs 26.5 lakh, pending since April. “We also incur annual loss of Rs 8-9 lakh towards transport, as most of our students come from interior areas who cannot afford to pay full charge,” Malik adds.
Private schools in Shamli charge monthly fees ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000, apart from Rs 500-600 as conveyance charge. Most schools have between 500 and 2,500 students, though in some the numbers are now falling below the minimum 500 or so for them to remain viable.
Mohkam Singh from Kheri Bairagi village, who owns 3-acres of land, supplied 400 quintals of cane to the local sugar mill at Shamli in 2015-16. While this cane should have fetched Rs 1.12 lakh at the SAP, all he has got so far is Rs 44,000. His two grandchildren study at Devi Umra Kaur Vedic School, which is 5 km from the village. Their combined monthly fee of Rs 3,000, inclusive of bus charges, has not been paid after March and Singh isn’t sure how long the school will keep them.
But why are farmers keen to send their children to private schools? “The government schools teach neither English nor any computer courses. Even the quality of teachers has come down and the schools don’t have proper furniture or electricity most of the time. How will our children compete without the minimum facilities and standards that private schools are offering?” says Kaliram Chauhan, who farms 6 acres at Rasoolpur Gujran in Kandhla tehsil.
He, too, is awaiting full payment for his 900 quintals of cane delivered to the Shamli mill.