CHENNAI: Despite a bar on collection of full school fees, ordered by the Madras High Court, the School Education Department’s helpline has been receiving anywhere between 60 to 120 complaints a day regarding schools in TN demanding payment of fees over what is permitted.
However, there is still no clarity on what, if any, action the department has taken regarding the 3,000-odd complaints received in the past one month. According to official data, most complaints are from Chennai, Tiruvallur, and Coimbatore districts.
While the commissioner of school education, K Nandakumar, did not respond to calls, a senior official in charge of redressing such complaints in Chennai said that the department had sent a ‘warning’ to the schools concerned. However, he refused to divulge the number of schools that faced the action. “After receiving the complaint on overcharging of fees, we call up the schools and warn them. In some cases, we have also asked them to return the excess fees collected,” the official said.
The Madras High Court, in view of the lockdown last year, had ruled that schools can collect only 75 per cent of the fees in two installments for the academic year 2020-21. Later, the court permitted unaided schools in the State to collect 85 per cent of the annual fees, in six installments, for the academic year 2021-22, from parents who did not suffer a loss of income during the pandemic.
Schools not taking warning from the education department seriously : Parents
When Express made a call to the education department’s helpline number, 14417, where complaints are registered, the staff that answered the call confirmed that numerous calls were received regarding one school on many days. “When a parent/ guardian complains about a school overcharging fees, we take the information and forward it to the Chief Education Officer of the concerned district. Then another parent calls in a couple of days to complain about the same school. However, we are not responsible for taking action,” said the staff.
Parents complain that schools are not taking the warning from the department seriously. “After I complained about the excess fee demand, the school authorities did not pressurise me to pay for a whole week. However, they started sending messages saying online classes will be stopped. Only if serious action is taken or if fines are imposed on them, will such schools stop demanding excess fees,” said M Dayanand, parent of an eighth standard student from a Chennai school.
Similarly, R Venkatesh of Karamadi in the outskirts of Coimbatore, said, “I had already paid Rs 20,500 as fees to a private school in Mettupalayam for my son. He completed class 10 in the previous academic year in the same school. I went there to get a Transfer Certificate on Tuesday to admit my son to a private polytechnic college. However, when asked for the TC, the school staff asked me to pay Rs 3,000 as lab fee, only after which they would give us the TC.”
“They have not conducted classes properly and now they are asking fees for the lab which the students did not use at all. How can one make use of the lab when schools are shut?” he wondered. Venkatesh added that he would soon lodge a complaint with the educational officer regarding the collection of excess fees. When asked about such complaints, Chief Educational Officer of the district, M Ramakrishnan, said, “We have not received any such complaints in the past few weeks. Previous complaints have all been resolved. If there are more, parents can inform us.”
(With inputs from Coimbatore)
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