Days after a school principal was killed by her student in Haryana, private schools in the state would remain closed on Tuesday to protest against the apathy of parents, government agencies and society at large towards them (private schools).

Nearly 800 private schools in Haryana, including 100 in Gurugram, are expected to remain closed as part of this protest. As a mark of protest, the school staff will assemble at the district headquarters to hand over a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the deputy commissioner of respective districts with the request to ensure the safety and security of students, staff and principals.

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“Governments non-friendly policy towards the safety of teachers, principals, management, drivers along with non teaching staff has provokes them to taken this step,” HPSC president Kulbhushan Sharma said. The decision was taken by the Haryana Progressive Schools Conference (HPSC), an association of private schools, after the principal of Swami Vivekanand Public School, Yamunanagar, was shot dead by a Class XII student on 20 January. The association has also questioned safety inspections which are only being conducted in private schools.
In a letter to all schools, the HPSC has called on private schools in the state to remain closed on 30 January throughout Haryana to express their concern over the killing of a female principal. In this latter dated 25 January, HPSC said “growing indiscipline among students is a matter of concern. The role and attitude of parents and society at large need to be changed towards private schools.

“Today even the government agencies have very discriminatory approach to deal the cases. For example, anything happens in a private school, police, district administration, (political) leadership become too hyper to harass the management and principals without making any investigation,” the letter added.