Parents demonstrate before Kolkata schools demanding session fee reduction – Times of India

KOLKATA: A bit of dad and mom on Friday staged protests in entrance of two outstanding schools in south Kolkata demanding slashing of first quarter session charges resulting from monetary hardship of the guardians within the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The protests towards highschool charges had been being held in entrance of a number of different non-public instructional establishments since previous couple of days.

About 30 dad and mom holding placards like “we demand reduction in fees” held a silent protest before M B Girls Sishu Bihar on Friday demanding quick roll again of the primary quarter session charges by 50 per cent.

On behalf of the agitating guardians, Rajesh Biyani stated, “we demand 50 per cent reduction of school fees for 2020-21. But the school authorities are not ready to sit with us.”

He alleged that the varsity administration has threatened to disallow college students from attending on-line courses, if the primary quarter charges usually are not paid instantly.

A bit of guardians additionally staged protests before Mahadevi Birla World Academy in south Kolkata through the day demanding reduction in session charges.

When contacted, the authorities of the group of schools stated, “we are committed to continue with all efforts to keep the education process going during this crisis.”

A spokesperson of the schools stated, the group could come out with a press release in main dailies to listing the proactive steps taken by the tutorial establishments “to make it convenient for parents”.

The Mahadevi Birla Sishu Vihar had earlier stated in a discover there can be no hike in charges for 2020-2021.

The faculty authorities had additionally introduced a reduction in sure elements of the charges within the first quarter.

The discover had stated, resulting from “the protracted hardships in the current scenario, we have decided to announce a second round of further reductions for the fee payable for quarter 2 over and above passed on in quarter 1.”

“While there will be a reduction of Rs 1,800 in the second quarter which translates to Rs 600 per month for the quarter (July, August, September) 2020, for Lower Infant to class 12, no bus fees will be charged for the second quarter (July, August, September) from existing bus students who have paid the bus fees for the first quarter,” the discover had stated.

Guardians additionally held protests at St Stephen’s School at Budge Budge in southern outskirts of the town and Scottish Church Collegiate School in north Kolkata demanding that session charges ought to solely embrace tuition charges until there was an enchancment within the COVID-19 scenario.

For the previous two days, comparable protests had been held exterior Nava Nalanda group of schools, G D Birla Centre for Education, and St Thomas School in Khidderpore.

The faculty authorities maintained that they had not elevated tuition charges and had given concessions on sure elements of session charges.

But altogether waiving different non-tuition elements was not possible and should result in closure of schools, they stated.

The Nava Nalanda group of schools stated it had already effected a considerable reduction within the quarterly session charges and stated, “no further slashing is possible”.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Education minister Partha Chatterjee lately requested non-public schools to not hike tuition charges and contemplate the difficulty of cost of charges below different heads in a sympathetic and humane method.