ARPS [Assam Rifles Public School] Laitkor, Shillong a prestigious boarding school of North East India faces closure with effect from April 2016. This move has created confusion, uncertainty and panic amongst the 500 plus current students and their parents. In addition, nearly a thousand ex-students OLA [Old Laitkorians Association] from India and abroad have petitioned the Union Ministry of Home affairs to save the school.
ARPS was started in 1980 to provide quality public school education in the North East region by Lt Gen Sushil Kumar [then DG Assam Rifles]. The school is located outside Shillong at Laitkor and is managed as an ‘ARPS society’ by the Assam Rifles. The initial staff were recruited largely from St Paul’s Darjeeling. Under the stewardship of MN Tankha, the first Principal of the school, the school soon established itself as a premier education institution. The North eastern Council was very active in supporting this school initially. The school has produced National award winning film directors, Armed Forces Officers, distinguished doctors and lawyers to name a few. This school has been described as a heritage institution of the North East and the sterling contributions of its alumni in society in diverse fields are well acknowledged.
Over the last decade or so, the schools performance though had been deteriorating. This unsurprisingly coincided with an ugly pay dispute between the school staff and the management. The staff wanted pay commission recommendations for CBSE schools teachers and staff to be applied to them. Over the last decade the dispute escalated to the courts with the staff winning the court battle in the Supreme Court in late 2015. The school management was faced with an uphill task of catering to the financial implication of servicing the Supreme Court judgement [upwards of Rs 8 crores].
The school’s earning come from school fees and donations from the Assam Rifles regimental funds. Faced with this financial hit, the management declared that the school was not in a financial position to service the Supreme Court ordered financial payout to the staff. The closure of the school was announced in December 2015.
This news of closure was met by widespread dismay and disbelief by the alumni in India and abroad as well by the current students and their parents. The OLA initiated mediation between the management and the teachers in December2015. By end Feb 2016, an amicable settlement between the staff and the ARPS management was brokered by the OLA acting as neutral mediators. The staff agreed to receive part payment of their arrears whereas the management agreed to implement the 7 Pay commission pay scales for the staff. There was agreement that this financial deficit would need to be covered by the increase in school fees of current and future students. The staff agreed to forego some allowances like free electricity, LTC and Children’s tuition fees.
However, the staff reneged on this deal in early March. The agreement was to be submitted to the Supreme Court. The staff now demands full payment of arrears as a precondition. Meanwhile the date of 20 March 2016 looms large over the management as it has to file a reply to the Supreme Court.
The alumni [OLA] have criticised this move by staff as self seeking and detrimental to the welfare of students and the school. The staff should not be seeking to put its financial motives above its sacred duty of imparting education to students. OLA is still hopeful that the staff will reconsider its position and come back to the negotiating table. This will be in the best interest of all stakeholders of the school.
Dr Neel{Neelanjan} Konwar
on behalf of Old school Association
