Private schools in Jharkhand allowed to charge tuition fee, other charges waived

The schools, that carried out online classes, were allowed to charge tuition fee for April and May for now. Decisions for rest of the months will be taken later.

The state human resource development (HRD) department on Tuesday allowed private schools which carried out online classes during lockdown period to charge only tuition fee for the months of April and May.

The decision on rest of the months of lockdown will be taken later, HRD Minister Jagarnath Mahto said after holding separate meetings with the parents’ body and the private school managements.

“An order in this regard will be issued soon. Schools will not charge any other fees, barring tuition fees of these two months. The transport fee has also been waived for three months. The schools will also not increase any fee,” the minister said.

The minister, while talking to the media, said, “We talked to both the parties- school authorities and parents’ body- separately and reached to a consensus that schools will charge only tuition fee for April and May. However, this is not the final order. A case regarding school fees is pending with the Supreme Court. We will take final decision after the verdict comes.”

Tuition fees would be realized only by those schools that conducted online classes during the lockdown period, he said.

Earlier, school authorities, who came from different districts of the state, placed their points before the minister. “There was a discussion on many issues, including tuition fee. We had requested the minister to allow the schools to take tuition fees, as teachers get their salaries from it,” said Ram Singh, chairman Sahodaya School Complex, a group of CBSE schools in Jharkhand.

The parents’ body -All School Parent’s Association (ASPA), however, has protested the minister’s decision of allowing schools to realize tuition fees.

ASPA president Ajay Rai said, “The minister himself had said that schools should waive all kinds of fees during three month of lockdown period. Today, he allowed schools to take tuition fees. Parents are feeling cheated on with the decision.”