School associations from across all boards have urged the state government to limit the total fee cut to 15% in a memorandum submitted by them, on Monday. They cited that slashing school charges will affect their ability to pay their staff and run operations of the school smoothly.
Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on January 29, had said that schools cannot ask parents to pay more than 70% of the tuition fees for the academic year 2020-2021. Further, schools were ordered to halt any other payments like development fees over the tuition fee. The representatives of Independent Schools’ Federation of India, Karnataka ICSE Schools’ Association and Association of Managements of Primary & Secondary Schools of Karnataka met the Medical education Minister on Monday to discuss the same.
PT Joseph, senior Vice president of the Independent Schools’ Federation of India, an association of CBSE and ICSE schools said that there should be no distinction between total fees and tuition fees. He further added that if schools were only allowed to collect tuition fees and give 30 % concession in that amount, nothing will be left for the schools.
In a conversation with TNM, Joseph told, “The schools had already divided the fees on a 50-50 basis. With the halting of payment of activities, the 50% fee has already gone. If we give a concession of a further 30% in tuition fees, we are left with 25% to pay the staff and run the school operations. Coupled with implementation of the RTE policy, the schools are struggling financially. We want them to help our teachers and help us mitigate financial constraints.”
The government has only consulted parents, leaving out the other two stakeholders, the school management and the teachers, said Joseph. The Associations also highlighted that the government had earlier stopped the annual increase in fees
In the memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister of Karnataka BS Yediyurappa, the associations stated that they demand, in lieu of the fee concession given to the parents, a grant to the school from the government in order to pay the salaries of teacher apart from asking for a concession of not more than 15%.
“Normally, 60 to 75% of the total fees collected is used for salary and wages. Under this order of the government, no unaided private school cannot survive,” the memorandum states.
They also requested a waiver of property tax and electricity, telephone and water charges on compassionate grounds.