BENGALURU: The third wave of Covid-19 has receded and the city is getting back to normal. But several children from slums continue to remain out of their schools over non-payment of fees over the past two years.
In a public hearing organised by the ActionAid Association and Slum Mahila Sanghatane at the Students Christian Movement building on Mission Road on Tuesday, mothers and children broke down as they narrated their ordeal of the past two years.
The NGOs working in Chalavadipalya, Jagajivanram Nagar and KR Market wards said out of 384 children they surveyed, 142 had dropped out of schools as their parents were unable to pay the fee for 2020 and 2021. The government has said 35% of the 46,000 out-of-school children are back in classrooms. However, the NGOs said many of the children they surveyed are unable to go back to schools, as the schools ask for the pending fees of the past two years, which adds up to thousands of rupees.
Non-payment of fees also leads to the schools not issuing transfer certificates to children, making it impossible for them to join another institution.
“I have three children and the annual fee was Rs 30,000. So I have to pay Rs 90,000 for one year alone. Two years’ fee is pending. Where can we get that much money? I work as a househelp and my husband is a dail-wage worker. We took the help of financiers but now that interest also has grown. The children remain at home now,” said Gayatri, mother of class 1, 2 and 5 students.
Pointing out that this is a denial of the children’s fundamental right of education, the activists said the government should send out a circular to all private schools to issue transfer certificates with no conditionalities, when requested by parents. The government should also waive the fee of children from below poverty line (BPL) families studying in private schools for the past two years.
The parents say they are unable to send children to government schools for two reasons: schools’ refusal to issue transfer certificates citing non-payment of fee and the language barrier.
An education department official present at the event said there is a government circular that no school can deny transfer certificates irrespective of the fee paid and parents can approach the jurisdictional block education officer in case of such a problem. However, a volunteer with Slum Mahila Sanghatane Jancy, said: “The parents sitting here have knocked all those doors. If you go to a private school near these areas, you will find half of the children standing outside as they are not allowed to enter class without paying fee. If another parent passes by, the children will ask for their phone, call their parents, tell them about the insults they were made to undergo and ask them to come and get them home. No school talks well with these parents.”
Many parents said joining a government school throws up the problem of language. Many children used to go to English-medium schools and spoke languages other than Kannada at home. “My daughter doesn't understand Kannada if I send her to a government school. She has been at home for two years now,” said Rajeshwari in Tamil.
Joint secretary of social welfare department Devaraj CP asked the parents to submit a proposal to use SC-ST funds to pay the pending fees.
