Rajasthan bars schools from collecting fees till they reopen

Rajasthan bars schools from collecting fees till they reopen

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government on Tuesday issued an order extending the deadline for school fee submission till the time they reopen. Schools are shut across the country every since the imposition of lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the schools are running online classes and have been demanding fees even during the lockdown, which the parents are objecting to. As per the Rajasthan government’s initial guidelines, schools were barred from collecting fees from students for three months — from March 15 to June 15 — in view of the Covid-induced lockdown and the subsequent closure of schools.

Since June 15, parents have been staging protests in front of different schools demanding fee waiver and suspension of online classes for primary students. Lending ear to their demand, the state government, as per the latest orders, has now barred schools from collecting fees till the time they reopen.

The order also said that the schools cannot delete the name of any student for non-payment of fees. It needs to be mentioned here that the All Rajasthan Private School Parents Forum has been staging protests in front of different schools, as part of its ‘No School, No fee’ campaign. They also demanded a fee cut for online classes and suspension of such classes for primary students.

Despite the latest order, the Forum members are still not satisfied.

Soon after the state Education Minister shared the news of fee deferment on Twitter, the Forum tweeted, “Does Minister Sir has some big plan so that Parents will pay full fee in one single instalment. Why can’t our minister waive fees as few states have done?”

Sunil Yadav, chairperson of the Forum, said, “Deferment of fee shall not work. We request the government to issue an order of fee waiver. Also, the state government should issue a detailed guideline on online classes. Parents’ patience level is now getting exhausted.”

Many parents were retweeting his tweet till the time of filing of this report.