The education department of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) conducted a hearing over the fees hike issue of Podar International School Nerul on Thursday. School management and parents were present at the meeting. The education officer assured parents that the fees hike issued would be resolved.
Meanwhile, the school management present at the meeting sought time to go through the minutes of the meeting and accordingly they will respond.
However, parents alleged that the school management has been doing the same tactics for a long time to delay the rollback of hiked fees.
Earlier, parents had staged a protest in front of the school premises on March 12 against the alleged hike in tuition fees. Parents also alleged that the school forces them to buy books and stationery from a particular shop.
According to the parents, the issue is pending for over two years and so far, the school management has given only assurances.
During the pandemic, there were mostly offline classes and students attended classes online. So, the state government had directed to collect only tuition fees. However, parents alleged that the school management merged the term fees into tuition fees for the academic year 2021-22. This increased the tuition fees by around 26%.
Since the outbreak of the pandemics, parents are repeatedly requesting the school management to work out increased fees. But the school management only gave assurance.
Kewal Mehta, one of the parents, said that the school management is forcing them to buy a new set of books. “We have demanded that hiked tuition fees should be rolled back and there should be a deduction of 15 percent in tuition for one particular academic year as per the state government resolution,” said Mehta.
Other parents also alleged that the quality of education was compromised during the pandemic despite they paid complete fees. “The school seems more interested in collecting fees and other charges instead of providing quality education,” said another parent.
