CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday informed the Madras High Court that the state has not yet permitted or framed any guidelines for online classes carried out by private schools and colleges across the state. It also said that all institutions have been asked not to demand any fees for classes that are being held during the lockdown through a government order.
This was conveyed to a division bench comprising justices Vineet Kothari and C Suresh Kumar by the government pleader V Jayaprakash Narayan during the hearing of a plea seeking to restrain educational institutions from holding online classes without proper guidelines as prescribed under the Information Technology Act.
Senior Counsel S Prabhakaran, appearing for the petitioner, urged the court to pass interim orders restraining private institutions from conducting online classes. He also added that the state itself has not framed any rules.
However, the judges, recording the submissions, said they are not going to pass any orders since the ground reality on the online sessions requires to be studied.
The court then directed the state and Centre to file a detailed report on any guidelines that have been framed on online classes and adjourned the plea to June 25.
The government had, in mid-April, ordered that schools should not compel parents to pay pending dues of fees or collect fees for the upcoming academic year while the lockdown is in force. However, schools across the state have been asking parents to pay the fees for the upcoming academic year under the pretext of conducting online classes. Schools in cities including Chennai have even started lessons for the upcoming academic year online.