The stalemate over collection of tuition fees by the private schools in the State for the lockdown period from March to June is likely to continue as the matter remained unresolved in the Orissa High Court on Monday and the court adjourned the case’s hearing again to December 2.
Seeking a direction to the State Government to pass necessary order asking both private unaided and aided schools not to collect tuition fees for the lockdown period and not to increase any fee in the academic session 2020-2021, multiple PILs are filed in the court by parents’ associations. Adjudicating one of the petitions, the court had asked the Government to resolve the issue by convening a meeting of all the stakeholders, including the school managements. The Government had submitted a report in the court stating that an MoU has been signed by all stakeholders proposing a fee waiver of different slabs.
Stating that bereft of any statutory provision to deal with the fee fixations in private schools and the Odisha Education Act lacking any provision for the same, the Government had requested the court to accept the MoU, which mentions about seven slabs of fee waiver for different schools.
Although the Government claimed that ‘near unanimity’ had been reached among the stakeholders, a Bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Biswanth Rath received several pleas questioning the modalities of the MoU.
When Advocate General requested court for some more time to get instructions from Government over new development, court adjourned case’s hearing to next month.