THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With online classes going on in full swing, unaided schools have resumed collection of fees that was suspended following a directive from the government in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.Majority of the unaided schools have increased fees by 15 to 65 per cent and parents have no option but to pay so that online classes are not interrupted. Recently, a CBSE-affiliated school in Thiruvananthapuram created a record of sorts by raising the fees by 65 per cent. The annual fee for Class XI, which was around `32,000 per student last year, was hiked to nearly `53,000 under various heads.
Though parents protested and the CBSE regional office was informed, the school adopted a firm stance of ‘pay up or leave’. However, some CBSE schools have set a new trend by collecting only a portion of the fees. According to Indira Rajan, chief patron of Council of CBSE Schools, Kerala, some member schools of the Council have already communicated to parents that only the tuition fee will be collected as online classes alone were being offered at present.
Some parents have misinterpreted the Chief Minister’s directive as a total fee waiver. General Education Secretary A Shajahan told TNIE that the government’s ruling regarding fees was only advisory in nature and that no formal order has been issued in this regard.In 2018, when a similar case related to school fees came up before its consideration, the High Court had ruled that the state was empowered to frame laws to regulate the fees levied by educational institutions.
However, the proposal of a regulatory mechanism, on the lines of the fee regulatory committee for professional colleges, still remains on paper.“The government is in favour of setting up such a fee regulatory mechanism for unaided schools, but a through legislation needs to be enacted for it,” said a source in the education minister’s office.