With the Covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown forcing mass closure of education institutions, several state governments have issued circulars directing private school managements to defer/ waive tuition and other fees during the lockdown period. Moreover, some state governments such as Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have issued notifications prohibiting private schools from conducting online classes for pre-primary and primary children. These ill-advised knee-jerk notifications have severely disrupted the cash flow of private independent (unaided) K-12 schools, especially budget private schools (BPS) countrywide whose number is estimated at 400,000, and endangered the employment of over 5 million teachers of private schools. With a substantial number of parents withholding March-June tuition fees, private schools countrywide are experiencing an unprecedented financial crunch and are unable to pay teachers’ salaries Summiya Yasmeen & Akhila Damodaran present a national round-up of state government directives relating to tuition fees and online teaching-learning in major states of the Indian Union. “We have petitioned the state education minister to direct parents who are financially capable, to pay school fees. Many private schools have 25-30 percent fees pending from the last academic year. How can the government expect us to pay teachers and other staff when we are not allowed to collect fees? Also we are unable to conduct online classes because parents fear this will become an excuse for us to charge fees.” — A. Krishna Reddy, chief mentor, Andhra Pradesh Unaided Schools Managements “The state’s private schools are facing a grave financial crisis because of loss of fees revenue during the past three months. We have petitioned the state government to provide financial assistance to private school managements. Had the Central government allocated even 0.1 percent of the Rs.20 lakh crore Covid-19 stimulus package to education, it would have helped a great deal. We have placed our demand for financial support before the prime minister as well.” — Syed Shamael Ahmed, national president, Private Schools and Children Welfare Association “If private schools are not allowed to collect fees, we will have to close down. In Chhattisgarh, parents believe online classes are an excuse for extorting fees from them. Parents and government should understand that education, like any other service, cannot be provided free-of-charge. Government should allow us to collect fees; otherwise many teachers will lose their jobs.” — Jitendra Singh Thakur, founder-member, Chhattisgarh Private School Managements Association “All private schools in Delhi have complied with the government order and charged parents only tuition fees during the lockdown period. But there is huge shortfall in the collection of fees and most private schools are struggling to meet mandatory expenses including teachers salary payments. In its order the government clearly says that the fees collection restriction is for the lockdown period. Now with the Central and state governments officially beginning Unlock 1.0, we want them to issue a new order allowing schools to charge annual and development fees.” — Bharat Arora, general secretary, Action Committee Unaided Recognized Private Schools, Delhi Moreover, the state government has issued an order stating that the School Leaving…
