Parents struggle to keep wards at schools

By Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: While the schools in the city have reopened after the Covid lockdowns, the parents are finding it difficult to pay the fees and meet other expenses as their finances have been dented due to job losses, fall in income and in some cases high medical expenses.

Many parents have also reported instances of harassment from the schools to pay the pending fees at the earliest, or their wards would not be allowed to attend classes. Earlier, when the Karnataka government had capped school fees at 70% of the tuition fee, parents welcomed the government’s decision. However, the Associated Management of Schools in the state was unhappy and approached the court challenging the order.

Hafeez, a parent from Bengaluru is finding it difficult to pay the fees of his four children studying in the same school. “I run my own business and I have faced more than 50% drop in revenue compared to previous years. Last year I had taken some loans to manage my family. I have still not been able to clear my dues,” he told News Trail.

Due to non-payment of fees for the last two years, the school told him that his children cannot be allowed to attend the physical classes anymore. When News Trail visited the school, the management insisted that they have been providing classes both offline and online to Hafeez’s children. They were even allowed to write exams and promoted to the next academic year even without a single penny, they said.

All that the school is saying now is that they can provide the transfer certificate to the students and they can study somewhere else. “The last year’s arrears for my son alone amount to Rs 60,000. I have no means to pay that amount even in 6 instalments. Why can’t the government intervene and provide a package for schools and relieve parents?” asked Sandeep, another Bengaluru-based parent.

“We suggested to the parents that if they wanted free access to education, they could switch to government schools. Just blaming private schools for high fees will not work,” the school in-charge said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director of Public Instructions (South), S Rajendra said, “Tuition fee is mandatory and it has to be collected by the schools. However, the parents can pay it in instalments. It is the responsibility of the schools to ensure that the fee is collected duly. Keeping the problems faced by the parents in mind, we have directed the schools not to charge the full fee towards computer training, extra-curricular activities and those under different sub-heads that students may not be using,” he said.