Telangana: Schools ignore govt fee collection diktat

HYDERABAD: Despite the state government directing schools to collect monthly tuition fee, a few schools in the city are asking parents to submit ‘evidence’ to accept monthly payment, failing which they are forced to pay annual fee at one go.
Parents and teachers alleged the school managements are asking parents to submit payslips or a letter from their organisation, indicating that there is a negative impact on their salary due to the lockdown.

Teachers said they were asked to maintain separate records of those parents who want to pay fees on monthly basis.
“Once, the principal gets list of these parents, he/she calls parents and ask them to send some evidence to show that their employer has imposed pay cuts. This exercise is being followed to ensure that those parents who are not affected because of the lockdown continue to pay fee on quarterly basis,” Shabir Ali, president, Telangana Private Teachers’ Forum said, adding that majority of schools in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the state were still collecting term or annual fees.
“Many schools are sending messages to parents informing that they can get discounts if they can clear full fee,” said Venkat Sainath, joint secretary, Hyderabad Schools Parents’ Association. He said that schools were not implementing all these rules—no fee hike or collection of fee on monthly basis, to the new admissions.
The private school managements, meanwhile, said that it would be better if parents, whose income is not affected by the lockdown, pay fee as per the schedule as they too need to pay their staff.