Page 18 - Education World July 2020

Education News

and lead petitioner in this case. salaries.
Although petitioners in this case Responding to the state govern-
have welcomed the court’s stay or- ment’s appeal and also to parents
der, they stress it is an interim order. facing financial difficulties due to the
A battle — not the war — has been lockdown, prominent city schools
won by Karnataka’s beleaguered have agreed not to hike the school fee
private schools. for this year. However, in spite of fee
Akhila Damodaran (Bangalore) hike waiver, parents of many children
in private schools haven’t paid fees
WEST BENGAL for the first quarter (April-June), and
Brightening horizon have pleaded for waiver of library, lab-
oratory, games, computer and trans-
port charges since schools are shut.
HE CORONAVIRUS AKA COVID-19 With the fees payment due date for
pandemic has swooped down the July-September quarter approach-
Ton the country’s 375,000 pri- ing, some school managements in the
vate unaided (independent) schools state have started offering partial
and estimated 400,000 budget pri- waivers excluding bus fees and meal
vate schools (BPS) like a totally unex- charges and waiving penalties for late
pected black swan calamity. With the payment. Some schools have also giv-
economy in total lockdown for 68 days en parents the option to clear arrears
and a large number of employees and in instalments.
workmen in MSMEs (micro, small and Inevitably, these adjustments and by education minister Partha Chat-
medium) firms and companies, which concessions have had a cascading ef- terjee. “We have requested schools
employ 90 percent of the national la- fect on teachers’ remuneration with not to increase the tuition fee for this
bour force, suffering salary cuts, fur- several schools slashing teacher sala- academic year and also not to charge
loughs and lay-offs, state governments ries by 20 percent which has nulli- penalty. The rest of the decisions will
have ordered private schools to desist fied the pay rise that teachers in the have to be taken by the respective af-
from collecting fees for the lockdown state had belatedly received in Janu- filiating bodies. Therefore, I have in-
period. These orders have created un- ary under the Sixth Pay Commission formed them about developments in
precedented challenges including clo- Award. On June 29, 100 principals of our state and asked them to look into
sure of thousands of private schools private CBSE schools in Kolkata and the matter,” says Chatterjee.
especially BPS countrywide. neighbouring districts wrote to chief he circumspection and maturity
Against this backdrop, the Trin- minister Mamata Banerjee requesting Tthat Banerjee has displayed in
amool Congress government of West the right to suspend online classes for her second term in office after TMC
Bengal (pop.91 million) led by stormy children of defaulting parents. ended 34 years of uninterrupted mis-
petrel chief minister Mamata Banerjee However, with an eye on West rule (1977-2011) over West Bengal by
has emerged as perhaps the sole state Bengal’s legislative assembly elec- the CPM (Communist Party of India-
administration with some sympathy tion which is less than a year away, Marxist)-led Left Front government in
for private schools. The notifications unlike chief ministers of most other 2011 and won a second five years later,
and orders of the state’s education states who have taken the populist has improved the chances of this for-
ministry are mild. They advise West line of ordering private schools to de- merly stormy petrel of Indian politics
Bengal’s 1,200 private independent sist from collecting tuition fees while winning a historic third term in office
schools and nearly 300 BPS to refrain continuing to pay teachers, Banerjee next summer.
from raising tuition fees for the aca- is treading warily. Well aware that With the CPM which provoked a
demic year 2020-21 (which began in West Bengal’s b hadralok (refined continuous flight of capital and de-
April), and to desist from imposing middle class) places a premium on industrialised the state during its
penalties on parents for late payment the high-quality education dispensed three decades-plus rule now a spent
of school fees of the past four months. by the state’s private schools, she has force, over the past few years the BJP
Moreover in media interviews, Ba- abstained from directly intervening in has emerged as the main opposition
nerjee made it clear that she doesn’t the thorny private schools fees issue. party in Bengal. In General Election
support the ‘no fees during lockdown’ Instead, she has lobbed the ball in the 2019 it won an unprecedented 18 of
demand of some parents associations courts of CBSE and CISCE, requesting the 42 West Bengal seats in the Lok
bearing in mind that schools need to their intervention. Sabha snatching 12 seats from TMC.
continue paying teachers and staff This tone of caution is maintained But there are signs that with the new

18 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2020