Srinagar, May 21: With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic wherein every individual is trying to mark safe of getting infected, scores of private schools in Kashmir valley are busy minting the money that the government has ‘barred’ to collect and charge.
Scores of parents of those wards studying in private schools told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the private schools are charging them transport and annual fee charges besides the tuition fee too.
The parents said that despite government directives to collect only tuition fee in the lockdown period, some private school authorities have asked them to pay the transportation and annual fee as well.
“This is a sheer violation of government norms and such private schools should be held accountable for the violation of government guidelines,” said one of the parents.
Another parent said that there was a supreme court ruling that the students are supposed to pay only those charges of which facilities are being provided to the students.
“As of now the students are only attending the online classes but some schools are charging the transportation and annual charges as well,” he said.
He also said that the annual charges are only being collected when the students are accessing the labs or there is any sort of paper work for them in the schools. “As far as the transportation fee is concerned, the students have not availed the facility for a long time and charging transportation fee is not justified especially during this pandemic wherein every soul is trying to mark safe of getting infected,” he added.
Meanwhile, the officials of Government Fee Fixation Committee (GFFC) told KNO that there was no change of previous orders in collecting any kind of fee except tuition fee.
“In the lockdown period, the management of private schools are supposed to collect only tuition fee. They are not supposed to charge any other fee,” he said.
In the meantime, advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar said that there were no new decisions in this regard.
Bhatnagar said, “As of now the government is busy in dealing with Covid-19 situation and have not proposed or issued any new orders in this regard.”
Earlier this week, KNO published a story wherein parents of children studying in private schools were demanding curtailment in tuition fee and exemption of other charges—(KNO)
