The Department of Primary and Secondary Education has reduced the fees that managements of private schools can collect from parents for the current 2020-2021 academic year. They can collect only 70% of the tuition fees that they had collected last year (2019-20), said S. Suresh Kumar, Primary and Secondary Education Minister at a press conference on Friday. The fee cut will be applicable to schools affiliated with the State and central boards.
If parents have already paid the entire amount, schools should either give them a refund or adjust the amount with next year’s fee.
“Parents should be given the option of paying the fees in two or three installments,” said Mr. Suresh Kumar, while noting that the State government had the authority to prescribe fees based on the Karnataka Education Act 1983 and also under certain clauses in the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
School managements are unhappy with this decision given that at the start of the academic year, the government had only stated that they could not increase fees compared to the previous year. However, the government’s decision has brought some measure of relief to parents who had been protesting across the State citing financial constraints brought about by the pandemic.
For the past several months, parents’ associations had been demanding government intervention especially as many private schools were refusing students who hadn’t paid their fees access to online classes.
S.R. Umashankar, Principal Secretary of the department, said that the amount schools can collect by way of tuition fees will cover the salaries of their teaching and non teaching staff and also include library, sports, and laboratory fees.
“For this academic year, schools will not be allowed to accept donations or charge optional fees for extra curricular activities such as transport or swimming fees,” he said.
Mr. Suresh Kumar justified the decision to cap the amount schools can charge on the grounds that they did not conduct classes on campus from June to December 2020, as a result of which their recurring expenditure was reduced.
“The decision was taken after the Commissioner for Public Instruction (CPI) held several rounds of meetings with stakeholders including parents and school managements,” said Mr. Suresh Kumar.
If parents have any grievances against the school, they can approach committees that will be formed for this purpose at the district level.
