Lockdown: Parents write to government seeking fee reprieve
The new academic session was to begin on April 1. The schools have been shut as a precautionary measure against Covid-19 for some time. However, schools have started sending fee receipts to the parents. Parent associations of different private schools have demanded that the Delhi government intervene against the fee collection as parents have been impacted due to the lockdown.
The Delhi parent association has written to the deputy chief minister and education minister, Manish Sisodia, seeking intervention on the fee collection. Even several parent associations, on their individual capacity, have been sending letters to the government so that they can get fee waiver till the lockdown is in place.
In a letter, the Delhi parents association said, “It is a tough time to meet the fee demands by unaided schools in such circumstances.”
The association requested that even after the opening of schools, parents be allowed to pay fees in instalments and ensure that no action is taken against children.
Meanwhile, the schools said that if the parents do not pay fees, it will be difficult for them to pay salaries to their teaching and nonteaching staff.
◗ Parents requested that even after the opening of schools, parents be allowed to pay fees in instalments and ensure that no action is taken against children
“Schools are investing in online teaching to ensure that academic activity is not affected due to the lockdown,” said a principal of a renowned private school in South Delhi.
According to a government official, they have been receiving queries from the parents on the fee payment issue.
“Fees being sought is an issue the government cannot intervene in,” said the official.
Parents in neighbouring Gurgaon and Noida have got some respite in this regard.
While Noida administration ordered on Sunday that no educational institution across Noida and Greater Noida can force parents of any student for fees during the Covid-19 lockdown or bar pupils from attending online classes, the Haryana government had last week ordered that all fee collection activities be suspended by schools till the lockdown is over.