Pay the full fees or take your wards out of school,” autorickshaw driver Raghavan was told by his children’s private school. He felt his heart sink as he paid the fees with the money he had saved up for his sister’s wedding.
Grief shadowed his face as he said: “I’ve struggled to even afford one meal a day, and don’t want my children to face the same situation. So I worked day and night to get them educated in a private school. The pandemic, however, ruined me as I could not earn much. To make matters worse, the school is demanding the full fees.”
The Madras High Court had ordered last year that schools should only collect 75 per cent of the fees from parents. Recently, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said schools must follow the same fee pattern (75 per cent fee collection) this year too. But many parents say private schools are demanding the full fee, based on a Supreme Court order (see box).
“We receive complaints every day about schools collecting the full fee. In Chennai, there have been incidents of teachers threatening children saying they would stop online classes if the fees are not paid,” said S Arumainathan, president of the Tamil Nadu Students’ Parents’ Welfare Association.
CBSE schools aren’t paying heed to the High Court order, claiming that only the Supreme Court order is applicable to them. This has spawned a lot of confusion. The State government must give a clarification, he added.
Parents have been staging protests outside several schools in Chennai against the collection of the entire fee. “The school my son studies in collected only 75 per cent of the fees last year. This year, they hiked the fees by 16-25 per cent across classes and asked us to pay the full fees. The school further demanded that parents pay an additional 10 per cent of the previous academic year’s fees and 60 per cent of this year’s fees to accept students into online classes,” alleged one of the parents. A similar incident of a private school hiking school fees by 15 per cent was reported in Tirunelveli as well, according to a parent of a Class 6 student in that city.
In Erode, parents of students at a private CBSE school said the management had been demanding the full fee since last year. Though they had sent complaints to the Chief Educational Officer, Chief Minister’s Cell, Collector, and even Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, they got no relief.
According to sources, the school did not promote to the next standard those students whose full fees had not be paid; it also allegedly refused to hold online classes for them.
Recently, parents of over 40 students submitted a petition at the collectorate, seeking a direction to the school to collect only 75 per cent of the fee as per the High Court order. They added that they paid 50 per cent of the fee and are ready to pay the rest.
“The school administration’s actions are causing great mental and financial stress to us and our children. Last year, they even demanded transportation fees when our children didn’t even go to school. Our children are not using the infrastructure of the school and only limited online classes are being conducted for them. Considering the financial problems Covid-19 has caused to all, the school must respect the court and government’s instructions and collect only 75 per cent of fees,” said a visibly distressed parent.
According to sources in Erode, parents, in many cases, are reluctant to lodge complaints for fear that they might affect their wards.
Points of view
Here’s what various stakeholders had to say about school fees amid the pandemic
Courts
Schools can only collect 75 per cent of the fee in two installments for the academic year 2020-21, the Madras High Court said last year. This year, the Supreme Court allowed private unaided schools in Rajasthan to collect 100 per cent of school fees in six monthly instalments, from March 5, 2021
Government
Schools must follow the High Court order and collect only up to 75 per cent of the fee in two installments, Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said on June 14. He added that action will be taken against schools that demand the full fee. Similarly, other State governments have issued circulars announcing relaxations in school fees
Parents
There is no clarity as schools are citing the Supreme Court order and not following the High Court’s directions, said S Arumainathan, president, TN Students’ Parents’ Welfare Association. He added that teachers are threatening to stop online classes if students don’t pay the full fee
Teachers
Hundreds of teachers suffered pay cuts and job losses amid the pandemic. Many of them had to take up alternative jobs to make ends meet. But their employers can’t be facing losses since they have been charging more than the prescribed fee, and some even made parents pay for uniforms and transportation, said PK Ilamaran, president, Tamil Nadu Teachers Association
Schools
TN Nursery, Primary, Matriculation, Higher Secondary, and CBSE Schools Association general secretary KR Nandhakumar said schools can’t pay teachers as many parents haven’t yet paid 75 per cent of the fee. Schools are ready to take only 75 per cent of the fee if the government releases the pending RTE fees for private schools, he added
Schools are draining parents’ pockets, sometimes even billing them for uniforms and transportation though classes are held online. Amid calls to reduce fees, some institutions are doing the opposite. But school administrations say they’re not benefitting from the situation, and certainly, teachers aren’t either