Only 21% schools in Maha implement 15% fee waiver

PUNE Only 21% schools across Maharashtra have implemented the 15% fee waiver as directed by the state government in the academic year 2021-22

PUNE Only 21% schools across Maharashtra have implemented the 15% fee waiver as directed by the state government in the academic year 2021-22.

Only 21% schools across Maharashtra have implemented the 15% fee waiver as directed by the state government in the academic year 2021-22. (HT FILE PHOTO)

Of the 40,043 private schools across Maharashtra, only 8,774 schools have implemented the said fee waiver, informed Bacchu Kadu, minister of state for education, while responding to a question in the state legislative council on March 8.

In August last year, the Maharashtra government had issued a government resolution (GR) directing school management across all boards and mediums to implement the 15% fee waiver for the academic year 2021-22. According to parents, many schools have not implemented the GR, giving no respite at all to parents struggling financially during the pandemic.

This week, parents were allegedly manhandled by bouncers at a private school in Pune. According to these parents, they wanted to submit an application to the principal to implement the fee waiver. The video of the incident has gone viral.

Jayshree Deshpande, president, Parents Association of Pune said, “There are multiple such incidents where we see that there is absolutely no communication between parents and the school management. This has to stop. Many schools have not implemented the 15% fee waiver despite the GR. And there is no check on these schools by the education department. We have been demanding school audits from the education department but no action is ever taken.”

Many private schools have sought protection from the courts for the purpose of exemption from the fee waiver. Rajendra Singh, president of Independent English Schools Association (IESA), said that they have filed a writ petition in the high court as the Maharashtra government’s order of 2021 is not aligned with the Supreme Court order of 2020. “And according to the high court orders, there cannot be any cohesive action taken against schools associated with IESA for not implementing the fee waiver. There are 84 schools associated with us from Pimpri-Chinchwad and 127 schools from Pune.

Across Maharashtra, there are 4,821 schools associated with us against whom no action can be taken,” said Singh. Excluding these schools however still leaves a major chunk of private schools that have not implemented the GR. Sanjay Tayade Patil, chairman, Maharashtra English School Trustees Association (MESTA) said that there are 18,000 schools associated with MESTA. “The education department should take the initiative to check whether schools have implemented the fee waiver or not. Since we have already implemented a 25% fee waiver for parents, an additional 15% fee waiver has not been implemented in our schools,” Patil said.