The Trust ran around 350 middle and high schools across the erstwhile state. While 300 of these were in the Valley, around 50 were scattered across Jammu. After its ban in 1990, the trust handed over most of its schools to local-level management committees.
The Jammu & Kashmir government on Saturday took control of 58 private schools affiliated with the proscribed Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and its education trust, the Falah-e-Aam Trust (FAT).
An official said the government has taken over the management of 58 private schools affiliated with the Falah-e-Aam Trust. While officials have not named the schools taken over, sources said most are in north Kashmir.
The move comes eight months after the decision to take over these schools pitted J&K’s elected government against the Lieutenant Governor’s administration. In August last year, the government ordered the takeover of over 200 private schools in the Valley on the grounds that they were affiliated with banned Jamaat. The order, issued by the then secretary of the school education department, asked deputy commissioners to take over management of these schools.
Soon after, however, J&K Education Minister Sakeena Itoo accused the bureaucracy of “modifying” the order, saying that while her government had taken the decision in the “interest of the students”, the order had been “modified without her knowledge”. According to her, the elected government had decided these schools would be looked after by principals of nearby government schools.
The Jamaat was banned by the Centre as an unlawful association in 2019. In 2022, the LG administration barred the Falah-e-Aam Trust, a government-recognised education trust set up in 1972 by JeI, from imparting education and directed deputy commissioners to seal them.
While Article 4 of the FAT’s constitution specifies it was a “non-political” body dedicated to “education and service to mankind”, Article 3 lists opening “educational institutions to educate students from all shades of society without any discrimination” as one of its main objectives.
To justify its 2022 move, the LG administration cited a three-decade-old order by then Governor Jagmohan Malhotra. In that order, the administration had banned the Falah-e-Aam Trust, prompting the state government to absorb thousands of teachers from these schools into the education department.
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The Trust ran around 350 middle and high schools across the erstwhile state. While 300 of these were in the Valley, around 50 were scattered across Jammu. After its ban in 1990, the trust handed over most of its schools to local-level management committees.
