KOLKATA: A number of schools in the city have introduced a new charge — ranging between Rs 400 and Rs 800 per month, terming these “other essential charges” or “incidental charges” — attributing this to essential expenses incurred during the pandemic.
The charges, the schools explained, are to cover Covid-related expenses like infection-control measures and migration to robust online platforms.
South City International, the five BD Memorial Group schools, Vivekananda Mission School Joka and the four Julien Day schools are among those that have introduced the charge. They have mentioned it with the revised fees, where they extended a 20% discount in tuition and session fees, following a Calcutta HC order.
“We have introduced an incidental expense of Rs 800 per month because we have to upgrade our online facilities and bring in Covid-fighting sanitisation facilities on all four campuses,” said Julien Broughton, chairman, Julien Day group of schools.
Suman Sood, administrator of the BD Memorial group of schools, said a similar thing. “Covid has brought in new essentials into our lives, and we are coping with these after providing as much waivers as the court had asked us to,” Sood said. South City International has not only introduced the “other essential charges”, but has also started a new email ID to address all Covid fee queries.
Sharmishtha Banerjee, principal of Vivekananda Mission School, Joka, said: “We have been forced to introduce the ‘other essential charge’ of Rs 400 for the huge online expenses that we have been incurring. Unlike many other schools, we are not using free online platforms like Google Meet or Zoom, and have developed our own software. We are also having to pay for the security of these systems. It’s a huge expense,” she said.
St Xavier’s Collegiate School announced on Monday on its website that it was rolling back the Covid expenses it had introduced on October 31, saying it would wait for further clarity from the high court. St Lawrence, another Jesuit institution, had made a similar announcement on Sunday. Both these schools had introduced Rs 500 as ‘Covid fees’ on October 31, along with a revised fee structure.
The HC had said, in its order dated October 13, that non-essential services would not be charged at the moment and a 20% waiver needed to be given in tuition and session fees. Some schools, including those under the DPS umbrella and the Adamas group of schools, have included other heads in the “essential” category because these expenses had to be incurred even during the physical closure of the schools. The schools have given 20% and 50% discounts on transportation fees but have not waived those completely, saying those were “essential” because EMIs of buses and salaries of drivers and support staff had to be met. On the same premise, some schools like Adamas International have also been charging a part of the food and refreshments fee because the kitchen has to be maintained along with its staff, said school principal Mittra Sinha Roy.