E-Paper
Covid-19 impact: Many pre-schools shut down, leave teachers jobless in Ludhiana
Several pre-schools situated in Gurdev Nagar, South City, Pakhowal Road, Dugri, Civil Lines have closed down as they were unable to meet monthly expenses.
In the last five months, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has forced a number of pre-schools in the city to shut shop, leaving many teachers without jobs.
More pre-schools are likely to shut down by the end of this month.
A number of pre-schools situated in Gurdev Nagar, South city, Pakhowal Road, Dugri, Civil Lines have closed down as they were unable to meet monthly fixed expenses with many owners saying that the rent has been a major impediment.
This move has been the last nail in the coffin for many teachers and Class IV employees, who have lost their jobs.
Bugz and Beez preschool, located at the backside of Pancham Hospital, was running successfully till March this year, but the lockdown forced the owner to shut shop. Catering to nearly 75 children, the pre-school was running since 2017. Director of the school, Seema Sharma, said, “I started the pre-school three years ago with an aim to offer quality education, focus on the social development of a child, but the lockdown changed all my plans. With the schools being closed, very few parents were interested in online classes for their children. It was getting difficult to pay a monthly rent of ₹45,000, hence I decided to shut the pre-school.”
The situation is no different for other pre-schools. DPS Kids Pre-school, situated on Pakhowal Road also shut down last month. Owner Bobby said, “There is no clarity on when we can re-open the school. We have informed parents that we have shut down and I will start another venture soon.”
There are around 150 pre-schools in Ludhiana and several new playways and daycare centres have come up in the last two years.
President of the Pre-school Association of Ludhiana, Amanpreet Singh Arora, said, “With pre-schools remaining closed since March-end, the owners are finding it difficult to survive. Uncertainty over the reopening of schools looms large, hence affecting those running in rented accommodations. Even parents are not willing to pay the fee due to which many of them are closing down.”
Ishneet Sharma, director of Childhood Kindergarten Playway School, Punjab Mata Nagar, said, “Other factors have also led to the closure of pre-schools. It is often overlooked that what kind of quality is being maintained at an early childhood centre as there are no quality checks and no uniformity in the syllabus or age criteria. People who were running the pre-schools in rented properties could not meet their expenses as their income reduced to almost zero with parents completely refusing to pay even for online classes. Many owners were unable to bear the burden of monthly rent and teacher salaries.”
Teachers left in the lurch
I was working as a pre-school teacher for the last three years. Due to the pandemic, our pre-school situated in Dugri closed down as per government orders and in August the principal informed all the staff regarding the permanent closure of the school. Since I was left without a job, I decided to start tuition classes for students.
Ankita Jindal, pre-school teacher
For the last 10 years, I was working as a caretaker for the day-care students in a preschool and used for work from 9 am to 4 pm. But after the coronavirus outspread in March, the school closed down and since then I did not receive my salary. I have run out of savings. On one hand, I’ve lost my job, while on the other, I had to pay my child’s school fee from my savings.
Karamjit Kaur, Class IV employee of a pre-school
