UJJAIN: The parents staged chakka jam on Maxi Road in Ujjain for about two hours on Wednesday morning. They were unhappy with school fee determined by St Thomas School where their children study. The members of Parents Club stood outside the school gate due to dispute over school fee but the school management did not come out for talks.
Ujjain Educators Association (UEA) on behalf of non-aided private, CBSE and ICSE schools while flouting the order of Jabalpur High Court has been creating pressure to recover full fee instead of tuition fee.
In protest, a delegation of Basic Parents Association (BPA) met collector Asheesh Singh on Tuesday and sought his immediate intervention.
In a statement, the BPA said that they told collector that the campaign for recovery of tuition fee by private CBSE and ICSE schools in Ujjain district is being carried out by overlooking the order given by Madhya Pradesh High Court. The Right to Education is being violated by trying to deprive children of education when they are unable to deposit fee on time. While facing this crisis, many parents have faced salary cut while others have lost jobs due to Covid pandemic.
Madhya Pradesh High Court in its order dated November 4, 2020, mentioned that schools will not be able to recover library fee, reading rooms fee, games fee, laboratory fee, computer fee, practicals fee, annual function fee, activity fee, development fee and examination fee in the corona epidemic period and schools will cooperate by providing relief to parents.
Despite this, private schools have recovered full fee. Many schools through their teachers have been pressurising the students to pay fee failing which teachers are being made a weapon of fee collection by deducting their salary up to 50 per cent. The collector has been urged to provide possible relief to all parents by allowing them to pay fee voluntarily or by monthly installment as a major basis for the fee of children studying free of cost in RTE of private schools and to take immediate action against schools, which are threatening to deprive the students of education if they do not ubmit the full fee.
