In order to stage their protests against non-payment of fees by parents, nearly 1,483 private and unaided schools in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad will cease to conduct online classes and other academic activities for three days from Tuesday.
In order to stage their protests against non-payment of fees by parents, nearly 1,483 private and unaided schools in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad will cease to conduct online classes and other academic activities for three days from Tuesday.
These schools, affiliated to the Federation of Unaided Private Schools Association of Maharashtra, have said if the situation persists even after their protest, they will be forced to close down the schools for the rest of the year.
The federation is an umbrella body of private school associations in the district and the state with some 5,800 schools as members.
Rajendra Singh, president of the federation, said payment of fees has become increasingly irregular since the pandemic and subsequent lockdown started.
“We conducted a survey in our affiliated schools and found that 30% of the parents have paid the fees, about 12% have genuine financial problems, and the remaining are refusing to pay the fees despite them facing no apparent insurmountable economic hardship. These parents refuse to show any documents, and do not answer calls when authorities from the schools contact them,” he added.
Singh said it was not possible to carry on activities and pay teachers their salaries with just the 30% fees and hence they had come to this decision.
“We have already told our members not to hike the fees for this year. We also told them not to take fees for any other facilities like annual gatherings, gymkhana, meals, transportation, and others. We have also told them to give the parents a facility of monthly or quarterly payment of fees. Despite all this, parents are refusing to pay up. We have our own expenses and we do not get any grants from the government,” Singh said.
