Goa: Some private schools offer partial fee cut

PANAJI: In light of many parents losing jobs, facing pay cuts or business losses, a couple of private schools in Goa have decided to offer relief by implementing a 10-20% fee waiver for a few months. The decision was taken following demands by parents.
This fee waiver has been given for some months only as of now on the hiked fees approved by the directorate of education for the new academic year 2020-21. This essentially means that parents will be paying the same fee as the last academic year, at least for a couple of months.
Other unaided schools have decided to offer deferment of payment of fees for parents on a case-to-case basis.
“We have waived off the 10% fee hike in terms of school fees as a way of standing with parents,” chairman of King’s School, Margao, Melvin Pereira told TOI.
We trust that our mutual understanding will lead to mutual respect and we can all come out of this time stronger than ever before. Our staff has been amazing, our students have been very responsive and parents have been very encouraging,” he said.
Last month, the directorate of education issued a circular allowing unaided schools in Goa to implement the annual increase in fees by around 10%. But many parents had contacted schools asking them not go in for the increase in fees, given the pandemic and the impact on the economy and therefore on jobs and businesses.
“This pandemic has had a severe impact on both the Indian as well as Goan economy, and there is a lack of visibility ahead in navigating the future path. Due to this uncertainty, and, at the requests from various parents for reduction in fees, the management has decided to reduce the fees and offer the parents the concession for the month of May 2020 and for the period from June to May 2020,” the management of Sharada Mandir School, Miramar, said in a circular issued to parents.
As against the term fee approved by the DoE for the two months, a 10-20% reduction in fees has been offered to parents, depending on the class.
The school has also said that the first term fee, which was normally included in the June fee bill, will feature in the July monthly fee this year, so that the June bill is not ‘heavy’.
Founding president of the All Goa Government-Recognised Unaided Schools Association (AGGRUSA), Deepak Khaitan, told TOI, “A couple of unaided schools have decided to revert to last year’s fees. In a meeting held of unaided schools, most decided that they can defer the payment of fees for parents on a case-to-case basis. They will have to contact the schools if they are having difficulty in paying the fees and they can be allowed to pay it later at decided time of their convenience.”
He, however, appealed that parents who can afford to should pay at least 50% of the fees immediately to schools to help the institutes cover its costs.
“We have to pay teacher salaries and also things like sanitisation of school premises has only added to our cost,” Khaitan said.