With the surge in Covid-19 cases in the second wave in the State, educational institutions including Government as well as private schools have remained shut since March this year. While some schools have been holding online classes for their students, others have chosen to give them some time off. However, many private schools in the State have raised their tuition fees from five to 12 per cent, some private educational institutions are even charging other fees such as development charges, admission fees among others.
However, ever since the lockdown began, several parents have questioned annual fee hikes for the new academic session and have even demanded that schools shouldn’t be charging fees during the period of the lockdown. Last year there was a directive from the State Government to private schools on not charging other fees than tuition fees, schools were also asked not to make fees hike.
However, as this time there are no such instructions from the State Government, private schools have made a fee hike and are also demanding other charges such as development, admission fees among other charges. Various students/parents associations have approached the state government with a plea demanding government intervention on fees hike by private schools.
The Department of School Education and Literacy has sought the opinion of the Law department regarding the fees charged by private schools during the lockdown. The School Education and Literacy department will take a final decision on the fees of private schools based on the feedback provided by law department. In the proposal sent by the Department of School Education and Literacy to the law department, the instructions given by the State Government regarding fees last year and the petition filed by the schools in the High Court and the decision of the Supreme Court is also attached.
Schools are closed in the State since March 17, 2020. During this, the class operation of high school and plus two schools started in December. However, the school was closed again in April after the second wave of Covid-19 infections surged. Schools in the state are currently closed till further orders.
A senior officer at Jharkhand Education Project Council said, "Guidelines regarding the fee of private schools were issued by the Department of School Education and Literacy last year. Schools were asked to charge only tuition fees. Apart from this, the schools were instructed not to increase the fee in any way and not to charge any other kind of fee. As the instruction was for the previous year we have sought feedback from the law department on the current prevailing situation."
Meanwhile, founder president of Jharkhand Abhibhavak Sangh Ajay Rai said, “Our effort is yielding results as the Department of School Education and Literacy has sought feedback from the Law department. We are hopeful that the State government will take a favourable decision in the larger interest of students and financially crunched parents.”