Members of the Organisation of Parents Associations’ Forum (OPAF) on Sunday gheraoed the residence of School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash here protesting the hefty fees charged by private schools.
The agitating members alleged that the schools like Sai International, Young Phoenix, Naryana and BJEM are debarring the children from online classes, not providing them with report cards and issuing various threats to the students when they were not able to deposit the fees.
When the parents met the Minister about the issue he reportedly said, If you are not able to pay the fees why are enrolling your children in private schools.
The State Government has submitted an affidavit in the Orissa High Court that it has no control over private schools. But according to the Odisha Education Rules and its resolution on September 29, 1996 the fee should be charged as per the service provided.
But the Government did not inform the court about this. This proves that the Government has a nexus with the private schools. If the Government doesn’t solve the parents problems soon, the agitation would be intensified, warned the OPAF members.
Among others, OPAF secretary Mitarani Sahu, Sai International School parents’ forum secretary Nilamadhab Mohanty, Naresh Kumar Sahu, Naryana School forum’s Subhrajit Mohanty, Nihar Routray, Young Phoenix forom’s Shantipriya and Swagatika Das were present.