The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has asked schools in the State to allow a 25% reduction in the existing fee this year in the wake of COVID-19.
Besides public schools, the direction will be applicable to CBSE and ICSE schools too, a full bench of the commission comprising chairman K.V. Manoj Kumar and members K. Nazeer and C. Vijayakumar has said.
Online classes
The commission’s direction comes on a complaint by parents of students of ACE Public School, Manjeri. Though the school had allowed a relaxation of ₹500 in fee except for the months of June and July, students who did not pay fee were not allowed to take part in online classes, the complaint alleged.
With all sections of society facing difficulties caused by the pandemic, the school management’s argument that fee could not be reduced was not acceptable, the commission said. Parents should pay 25% reduced fee. The school should not deny students who remit the reduced fee the opportunity for education, and the CBSE Regional Director should ensure this, it said.
The commission said private schools had the right to levy fee on students but at least a 25% relaxation was necessary to ensure that education was not disrupted. Many institutions had announced a fee cut on their own. Many complaints of denial of education owing to non-payment of fee had arisen. Following the verdict of the High Court of Kerala that the government could take a policy decision on fixing the fee for CBSE schools, it should issue an order making the fee reduction applicable to them too.
Schools that had allowed a 25% reduction need not grant it again. A decision on doing away with the reduction could be taken once the situation caused by the pandemic changes for the better, the panel said.
