ALAPPUZHA: Parents of three students of Janasakthi Public School at Velanchira in Kandalloor, Kayamkulam, filed a petition to the education minister and Kerala State Commission For Protection Of Child Rights after the school management allegedly sacked their wards after they approached the Kerala High Court for reducing fees due to Covid crisis.
The school management sacked Jewel Prathapan, Devika Dileep and Devan V from the school in this academic year after their parents approached the court demanding to reduce the fee in 2020. Later, the court had directed all school managements to reduce the fees from 15 to 25 per cent in the academic year after schools suspended direct classes due to the spread of Covid.
According to Prathapan Ramachandran, father of Jewel, they demanded the management to avoid special fees after the majority of parents lost job since the spread of the pandemic.
“A memorandum signed by around 180 parents were also submitted to the management, but they were not ready to reduce the fees. Later, we approached the court and impleaded in the cases which the court already considered for judgment in last August-November period. Later, the court directed the CBSE and state government to reduce fees. When this academic year started, the school authorities did not accommodate our children on the rolls,” Prathapan said.
School manager Vijayan Chempaka said parents of the three students created a parallel PTA and tried to damage the reputation of the school via social media.“Some of them also tried to demoralise teachers. A teacher also filed a petition alleging vulgar remarks by parents. This forced the management to remove the students from the school,” the manager said.