Parents hold protest outside Ryan International School, Bavdhan, Pune; demand reduction in fees
A statement issued by the school management read, the Ryan group has adhered to all government directives and is sensitive to the financial concerns faced by the parents due to the current pandemic situation
A group of parents held a protest outside the Ryan International School, Bavdhan, on Thursday, and demanded reduction in fees for the current academic year.
As many as 400 students were not allowed to attend online classes from August 4 as they had not paid fees, allege parents.
Mritunjay Kumar, a parent, said, “The school has been conducting online classes since the start of the current academic year. On average, the classes are being conducted online for five hours every day from Monday to Friday. The school, however, is collecting entire fee amount including computer lab fee, library fee, the facilities of which the students are not availing.”
“We are requesting to reduce the fees as many of us parents have lost our jobs, the business has collapsed and the income has been cut to half and in some case, it has simply dried out,” he said.
“We are not against paying fees but schools should charge for the services that they are providing- like teachers are taking online classes, hence the school should charge for tuition fees only,” he said.
“We all have been trying to communicate with the school authorities, but there is no response. Our children are missing out on the classes,” he said.
A statement issued by the school management read, “The Ryan group has adhered to all government directives and is sensitive to the financial concerns faced by the parents due to the current pandemic situation. We have been running the online classes at a lot of expenses in terms of additional infrastructure, training, licenses, bandwidth and equipment. We have been cooperating with and supporting parents from the past several months. All the students who have paid their basic fees till July are continuing to learn every day via our online classes. We are actively looking into all the issues raised by the parents and are working towards some mutually agreeable solutions.”