Vidyashram sends reminder, demand hiked fees from students

JAIPUR: Despite the education department’s directive to BVB Vidyashram School preventing them from charging the increased fees, the school has sent a reminder to parents to submit the same.
The school has issued a notice to parents extending the last day for submitting fees without any penalty to May 9.

When queried, the education department maintained that the school whose NOC has been cancelled cannot carry out any academic or administrative function, including fee collection.

The school management had informed the court that the fee hike of 20% was necessitated by the increased burden on the school due to the 7th Pay Commission pay out to employees and teachers.

The new notice has come a day after Rajasthan High Court restrained the state government from initiating any coercive action against the school. Pleading anonymity, a management committee member said, “Fee collection is a normal process for any school. Even the court has not commented anything about us collecting fees. The matter is sub judice, so the school will not give any official statement until the matter is resolved.”

The move has further angered parents who blamed the state for failing to provide any redressal. “It appears that the show-cause notice and cancelling NOC by the state are mere eyewash. I protested and waited for a month thinking that the state would save us from the injustice. But today, I paid the fees as I lost all hopes of getting any reprieve from the government,” said Ashok Singh, a parent.

Another protesting parent blamed the state for framing poor laws and allowing schools to hike the fees unchecked. “I would not like to comment on the honourable high court’s observations. But my complaint is against the state government which failed to foresee that the law they framed is toothless to prevent schools from hiking fees,” said Nitin Sharma.

A state government official, meanwhile, said that the school cannot ask for hiked fees. “The school is illegal as its NOC has been cancelled. I have learnt that they are still charging the revised fee. They cannot ask for it until the matter is resolved or a fresh NOC is issued to them. The matter is pending before the court and they should have maintained the status quo,” said Vishnu Swami, a state government official.

Meanwhile, the district education officer has examined the revised fee of St Sophia School and found that the hike is unjust. “Soon, a corrective measure will be taken against the school to safeguard the rights of parents,” said an education department official.