School denies online edu link over non-payment of fees; parents protest

Nagpur: Aggrieved parents of Narayana Vidyalayam School are protesting management’s move to stop online study link of their wards after they failed to pay the fees. They wrote to the principal asking for up to 50% fees reduction for the academic year 2020-21 in view of Covid-19 pandemic.
The parents also demanded implementation of education officer (secondary) Shivling Patwe’s June 3 letter to all schools directing them to charge only tuition and term fees and not for services like library and laboratories which wouldn’t be used by the students due to closure.
A copy of the letter, which was also marked to the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court administrative judge Ravi Deshpande and Patwe, claimed the school had stopped providing online classes link to the children whose parents had not paid the first instalment.
Like every sector, even the schools are hit hard by the Covid-19 enforced lockdown with many teachers and parents losing out on jobs or facing big salary cuts. Similar protests by the parents were witnessed earlier in front of many leading schools like Bhavan’s and Centre Point with the help of an NGO against alleged fee hike.
Denying the parents’ allegations, Chinchbhuwan branch principal Mala Chembath said the school hadn’t hiked fees and instead provided an instalment facility for all. “Some parents are yet to pay last year’s fees. This year’s deadline for first instalment was May 10 but till date about 50% parents are yet to deposit the fees,” she said.
Principal said some parents paid up after the link was denied. “We stopped for just three days after they didn’t pay even a penny. We will be starting it again. We are ready to talk to parents having genuine problems. Today also some parents came and talked to me,” she told TOI adding that the school had about 2,800 students from KG-I to Standard XII.
According to parents, the lockdown had severely affected them, as many had lost jobs while others’ finances dropped alarmingly leading to constraints. “Some of us are also teachers in other schools and were being paid half salary. We are ready to pay the fees, but considering the situation, we seek your assistance to reduce it on humanitarian grounds. We all are paying regular fees without any break since the last many years,” the letter said.
Objecting to the introduction of online classes by the school, the parents said they were facing numerous difficulties in providing facilities to their wards for it. “From having separate devices to providing home schooling, the new system burdened us financially. However, we are comfortable in receiving study material in the form of PDF or video links,” they said while applauding the efforts of teachers and calling them “corona warriors”.