Gurgaon: Several parents of students studying at various private schools in the city on Tuesday staged a protest outside the mini secretariat demanding clear directions be given to schools to collect only tuition fee and provide unhindered access to email IDs, portals and online classes.
Around 50 parents — under the banner of the Gurgaon Citizens’ Council — held posters outside the mini secretariat.
They submitted a memorandum to the city magistrate, Siddharth Dahiya, demanding clarification on directions issued by the Punjab and Haryana high court and the district education department. They also accused the district authorities of inaction in implementing the state government directives.
The parents said the schools are not complying with the directive of charging only tuition fees from students and adjusting the tuition fees under different sub-categories without any discussion or consent from parents.
They said there is no justification for charging full fees when schools are not incurring operational costs similar to pre-Covid times.
Sagrika Gupta, a parent of a Class 10 student, said: “We have paid Rs 1.5 lakh since the beginning of the lockdown, but the school management is pressuring us to pay the full fee. They threaten us by saying that they will block portal access through which the children get their study materials.”
Another parent, Dhruv Bansal, said: “If the schools do not implement the order and the matter is not resolved by the district authorities soon, we will call for a hunger strike.”
Meanwhile, the city magistrate said, “The memorandum will be submitted to the divisional commissioner by the authorities concerned and directions from the divisional commissioner shall be implemented. We are also coordinating with the district education office and have sought their comments on the matter.”