The Tamil Nadu School Education Commissioner has reiterated that all unaided private schools should scrupulously follow the recent directions given by the Madras High Court with regard to fee collection for the current academic year.
In a circular to all Chief Educational Officials and District Educational Officials, School Education Commissioner K. Nandhakumar instructed them to act according to the High Court directions, which have specified that the DEOs of the districts concerned should consider and take an appropriate decision if any dispute arises between parents/ students and the school management in respect to fee concession.
At educational authorities in their jurisdictions, DEOs and CEOs have also been asked to ensure that students are not removed or dropped out from schools there. Students who face difficulties have also been asked to approach the jurisdictional educational authorities according to the High Court directions, who can then make arrangements to accommodate them in a nearby government, corporation, municipal or panchayat school.
The circular from the Commissioner has also asked all officials to once again instruct all unaided private schools about the fee collection for the 2021-22 academic year and said that any violation by them will lead to contempt of court and also result in severe action from the School Education Department.
The Madras High Court had said that private schools should collect only 85% of the school fees in six instalments for the 2021-22 academic year from parents who had not suffered a loss of income during the pandemic. For parents who have suffered a loss of income, they can make an application to the school management for consideration based on which 75% of the fees can be paid in six instalments. The school fee amount is what was last fixed during the 2019-2020 academic year. Unaided private institutions had also been told that they can collect the fee arrears for 2020-21 in instalments. For parents who need a further concession on account of unemployment or closure of business, the court said that their their case could be considered sympathetically on a case-to-case basis.
