Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Private schools are forcing parents to give consent for offline examination, shutting down online classes and further, to enforce fee payments denying classes to students. Raising these issues against St Paul Higher Secondary School, a group of parents reached out to local administration on Saturday seeking help.
Parents reached district education office and waited to meet district education officer (DEO). When they couldn’t meet DEO, they handed over a memorandum citing their problems to additional district project coordinator Narendra Jain.
Parents said that examinations should be conducted in both online and offline mode. They said that parents who do not wish to send their children to school amid the pandemic should be allowed to appear for exams in the online mode.
Jain guided parents and said, “DEO cannot pressurise central board of secondary education (CBSE) affiliated schools as we are not involved in their affiliation or major guidance processes.” Parents also approached joint director Sanjay Goyal seeking help. Administration will be investigating in the matter.
St Paul school representative Rajesh Francis said, "It's optional and it's a revision test and marks won't make any difference in final mark add up."
Forcefully seeking consent, no option for online revision test
“St Paul HS School is forcing parents to send class 9 to 12 students for revision test to school without option of online test, as prescribed by the governmentt,” Pankaj Mehta, parents’ representative, said. He added that school is not giving the option of online classes or tests.
“A lot of parents are not willing to take the risk for their child, but school refuses to consider it, only focusing on fee collection,” Mehta said. He added that in a meeting with school principal, the same was cited. “It’s just a revision test, maximum parents do not want it to be offline, so why the school is forcing us… just for fee!” Mehta said.
“Determine the appropriate fees for the online class. Currently, the fees that are being sought by the schools are being sought according to the Physical Class Study which is unfair. A case regarding the same is pending at Supreme Court (SC),” said Mehta. He added that waiting for judgment, some parents have not paid fees, but school is finding other ways to pressurise them.
Due financial constraint and economic slowdown, some parents are unable pay the fees. In such an instance, schools are pressurising parents by striking child’s name and removing them from online class, Mehta added.
