Indore:
Parent protest intensified in front of Shri Vaishnav Bal Mandir Girls School on Saturday, and despite discussion, both the school management and parents did not reach a consensus on school fees.
Despite instructions from administration not to deny students online education, the school had removed several students from online classes citing non-payment of fee, said parents. After this, parents began their protest against the school on Thursday.
Protesting against the school, parents shouted slogans outside the school premises until SDM Parag Jain and Indore-I MLA Sanjay Shukla had asked the school management to set up a meeting.
Still waiting for the school to add students to online classes, parents staged a protest on Saturday and demanded a clear decision.
Parents demand
“Denying children education and forcing parents to pay full fees in such difficult times, shakes the establishment of our society,” Prateek Tagad, parent representative, said. He added that school had earlier assured them of following administrative guidelines and considering a reduction in school fees.
“We had met with the management a couple of months back, they assured us that the decision on fee will be taken with consent from trustees soon, but they have not announced any relief as such,” another parent Gopal Sahu said.
Parents demanded 50 per cent relief in fee, citing that only online classes are conducted and they are facing financial strain due to coronavirus outbreak.
Representatives Sachin Maheshwari, Satish Sharma, Deepak Sharma, Ramakant Sharma, Dev Khubani, Mahesh Sharma of Shiv Sena and ABVP workers led parents and demanded a general fee relief for all the parents.
“We are asking for general relief, instead of targeting every particular parent and judging them on their financial condition, as everyone has suffered financially due to coronavirus outbreak and lockdown,” they said.
Parents said that the school is charging full fees attributing charges to their charity works.
School management says…
“We cannot provide fee relief to all the parents. All the 10,000 parents are not even demanding relief. It’s not even 30 per cent parents, who are seeking any kind of relief. We will, like every year, consider only those parents for fee relief (if we provide any), who fill the format of seeking relief due to their financial condition.”
