States »SoutPosted at: Jun 15 2021 5:20PM Karnataka Congress urges state government to fix concessional school fee
Bengaluru, Jun 15 (UNI) With the Karnataka government all set to reopen schools from July 1, leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday urged the state government to end the standoff between parents and school management over the issue during 2021-22 academic year.
In a letter to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, Mr Siddaramaiah said the government should take steps for strict implementation of concessional fees to be paid by parents during the 2021-22 academic years and release withheld salary of teaching and non-teaching staff.
Last year, the government announced a 30 per cent fee cut, but many managements collected the entire fee, including transportation charges, from the parents due to poor enforcement of the order. The Congress leader said that the government should not bow before the lobby of private educational management.
With regard to loans taken by private school managements from banks, he urged the government to consider the issue of waiver of interest during the pandemic months.
Senior Congress leader said that children did not attend school/college since last academic year due to pandemic. Many private schools and college managements did not pay salaries to teachers claiming that they did not conduct classes.
The former chief minister said that many teachers who are facing severe financial difficulties started working as daily wage labourers under the MGNREGA scheme and were selling fruits and vegetables.
Till now, there was no clarity on payment of concessional fee by parents for the academic year 2021-22 and this led to parents protesting in front of schools in Bengaluru and other cities, he said and urged the government to issue and order fixing the amount to be paid by the parents.
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