Indore:
A group of about 250 parents staged a protest in front of St Joseph School, Bijalpur, Indore on Monday morning. They sat in front of the school for about 5 hours before school management agreed to discuss their issue.
Parents have been protesting against private schools under the campaign ‘Jago Palak Jago’ undertaken by Jagrut Parents Association seeking an appropriate school fee as financial constraints have hit most of them due to coronavirus pandemic.
“To provide fee relief, High Court (HC) had asked schools to collect only tuition, but most schools are charging their entire fee stating that it comes under tuition fee only,” Sachin Maheshwari, association member, said.
Further, explaining the trouble of parents, a representative Hemant Talreja said, “Most schools are now pressuring parents to pay this entire fee and otherwise removing students from online classes, and even banning them from exams.”
Setting forward parents’ demand, a parent Ayan Bansal said, “There should be an appropriate fee set for the time being, when students are only attending online classes and not using any of the facilities in the school.”
Parents demanded 50 per cent relief in fee, citing that only online classes are conducted and financial strain is faced them due to coronavirus outbreak.
Other representatives from parents cited that some convent schools have agreed for the fee relief of 50 per cent, which should be acceptable for all the schools.
Earlier, the parent association had approached district administration in Jan Sunwai also and urged them to intervene in the matter.
The case from Jan Sunwai was forwarded to district education officer for further review on parents’ complaint.
Parents are raising these issues
1. Determine the appropriate fees for the online class. Currently, the fees that is being sought by the schools are being sought according to the Physical Class Study which is unfair.
2. Due financial constraint and economic slowdown, some parents are unable to pay the fees. In such an instance, schools are pressurising parents by striking child’s name and removing them from online class.
