Page 20 - EW March 2021

Education News

state — Kamal V i s h w ak arma, association — even if reluctantly
president of the city-based Private — accepted the MP high court’s 70
School Parent Association, presented percent of tuition fees-only order.
a petition to Inder Singh Parmar, However, several parents associa-
minister of education of the BJP tions misled by their leaders, have
government of Madhya Pradesh. appealed the Supreme Court against
The association’s petition alleged the high court’s order. Parents
that despite numerous government should be more sympathetic to huge
notifications and high court orders, financial losses suffered by private
a large number of private schools are schools and also by their children’s
charging fees under numerous heads Covid warrior teachers who may
of expenditure. “This is unaccept- suffer salary cuts and job loss. They
able and in violation of a November should withdraw their appeal in the
5, 2020 order passed by the Jabal- Supreme Court and accept the high
pur bench of the Madhya Pradesh court order. They should also bear
high court to the effect that private in mind that the Supreme Court has
schools can levy only the tuition fee. recently upheld a Rajasthan high
This situation needs to be urgently Siddharth Singh: cooperation call court order that parents should pay
remedied by the education ministry 100 percent of contracted fees,”
S
and state government,” says Vishwa- budget private schools in particu- warns i d d h art h S i n g h , director
karma. lar which are confronted with an of the Emerald Heights Interna-
The court’s judgement of last unprecedented cash crunch, some tional School, Indore and member
November was based on its inter- private school leaders are sympa- of the Association of Unaided CBSE
pretation of the Madhya Pradesh thetic to the plight of parents whose Schools.
Niji Vidyalaya (Private Schools incomes and businesses have been Private school parents would do
Regulation) Act, 2017 enacted by the upended by the national lockdown of well to heed this advice and aid and
previous Congress government of the industry and business for over six- enable managements of schools pre-
state which was dramatically ousted eight months following the outbreak paring their children for an increas-
by the BJP in a legislative coup in of the Covid-19 pandemic a year ago. ingly uncertain future.
March last year. “The Covid-19 pandemic was a Aditi Maheshwari (Bhopal)
In order to strike a balance among surprise disaster and the nation has
“stakeholders — who include to stand by the middle and lower GUJARAT
middle-class parents community.
students, parents, teachers and Private schools should draw on their Cautious reopening
management — we direct that the
students/parents shall pay tuition savings to tide over the crisis and
fee as per order dated September 1, cut their expenditure while deploy- ITH THE NUMBER OF COVID pos-
2020, which shall not be inclusive ing tuition fees to meet the salaries itive cases and fatalities in
of library fee, computer fee, practi- expenses of teachers,” says an d e e p WGujarat falling from a peak
S
cal fee, examination fee (subject to G up t a, vice principal of the Little of 97,894 and 1,132 on September 16,
examination not being held) and Angels Convent High School, Bhopal. 2020 to 16,577 and 120 on February
fee for programmes organised on This point of view was accepted 25, 2021, the state government has
occasions such as national festivals, by Association of Unaided CBSE permitted schools across the state to
sporting events and development Schools which petitioned the govern- reopen in a phased manner.
fee,” ruled the court on November ment to ensure that the reduced On January 11, class X and XII stu-
5 in response to a writ petition filed tuition fee is paid immediately. But dents who will write their board ex-
by the Association of Unaided CBSE following a government directive to ams in May 2021 were permitted to
Schools of Madhya Pradesh. Simul- parents to pay tuition fees forthwith, attend in-school classes, subject to pa-
taneously, the bench directed private the Private School Parents’ Associa- rental consent. On February 1, class IX
schools to ensure that children are tion filed an appeal in the Supreme and XII students started conventional
not deprived of online education and Court against the MP high court’s classes. And on February 18, class VI-
that teachers’ salaries are paid fully November 5 order. VIII children of private and govern-
with arrears, if any, to be cleared by “Private schools in MP have been ment schools were given the option of
the end of the current academic year. very sympathetic to the income and returning to school campuses.
Although the high court ruling has job losses suffered by our parents With schools obliged to follow strict
dismayed the vast majority of MP’s during the pandemic, and our SoPs (standard operating procedures)

20 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2021