Student-parent forum holds stir in Shimla against private schools charging arbitrary fees

Forum coordinator Vijender Mehra said even when the world is battling coronavirus pandemic, private schools are looting parents.

Chhatra Abhibhavak Manch, a local student-parent forum, here on Friday staged a protest outside the directorate of higher education against private schools for allegedly charging arbitrary fees and for disregarding the state government’s decision to only collect tuition fees.

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After the protest, a delegation of the forum met higher education joint director Pramod Chauhan and elementary education department joint director Hitesh Azad and submitted a memorandum demanding implementation of the state government orders.

The officials assured them to take action against private schools.

Forum coordinator Vijender Mehra said even when the world is battling coronavirus pandemic, private schools are looting parents. He alleged that most private schools were not even conducting online classes and still collected the whole fees instead of just tuition fees. Private schools are pressurising parents to pay fees by regularly sending them text messages, he said.

Mehra alleged that private schools have removed miscellaneous charges like annual charges, smart classroom charges, sports fees and other charges from the fee book and included them in the tuition fees, increasing it by four times.