Ujjain: The Ujjain Educators Association (UEA) on behalf of unaided private CBSE and ICSE schools are flouting the order of Jabalpur High Court and creating pressure on parents to recover full fees instead of tuition fees. In protest, a delegation of the Basic Parents Association (BPA) met the 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 fees by private CBSE and ICSE schools in Ujjain district is being carried out through UEA by ignoring the order given by the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The Right to Education is being violated by trying to deprive students of education- if they fail to meet the deadline for filing fees. During the Covid outbreak many parents are reeling under financial crisis as they salaries have been cut, income has been affected and some have even lost their present jobs.
Madhya Pradesh High Court in its order dated 04/11/2020 and in the para 11 clearly mentioned that schools will not be able to receive library fees, reading rooms fees, games fees, laboratory fees, computer fees, practical fees, annual function fees, activity fees, development fees and examination fees in the Corona epidemic period and schools will cooperate by providing relief to the parents of children in this heterogeneous economic situation. In spite of this, private schools have not mentioned in the fee of the amount charged in these items and have also recovered the entire fee in the name of tuition fee as the amount to be spent in the above items as included in the tuition fee. These schools have also made unjust efforts to charge the tuition fees in the name of offline education and also to put additional burden on the parents by including the time of the lockdown in the fee.
According to the BPA, charging of online operations through offline education also reflects the shortfall in services. Many schools through their teachers have been pressurising the students to pay the fees during the study period and failing to which such teachers are being made a weapon of fee collection by deducting their salary by up to 50 per cent. The BPA urged the collector to provide possible relief to all parents by allowing them to pay fees voluntarily or by monthly instalment as a major basis for the fees of children studying free of cost in RTE of private schools and to take immediate action against those schools which are threatening to deprive the students of education if they do not submit the full fees.
