Karnataka private school associations to protest on Feb 23 over 30% fee cut

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Feb 22, 2021:     The private schools’ associations in Karnataka will be staging a protest in Bengaluru on February 23 over the government’s order asking schools to take a 30% cut in tuition fee. The associations are agitating against the state government’s order dated January 29 that private schools can collect only 70% of tuition fees and cannot charge fees under any other header. School managements have been demanding that the order be revoked, and labelled it “unscientific”.

 

The protest will begin from Bengaluru’s Sri Krantiweera Sangolirayanna Railway Station to Freedom Park. Teachers, non-teaching staff and management members of ten private school associations across the state including KAMS, Independent Schools’ Federation of India, Archdiocesan Board of Education Bengaluru, will be participating in the protest. As many as 25,000 people including teachers, non-teaching staff and management members will be a part of the protest, said Shashi Kumar, General Secretary of Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) in a press release.

“The objective of the protest is the financial distress of private education institutions, unscientific fee reduction, the imposition of a new school clause for the old schools under the COVID-19 pandemic in the name of accreditation renewal,” the press note read.

The private school managements have been alleging that fee cut will intensify their financial crunch and that they have been facing harassment at the hands of Block Education Officer (BEO) and Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) officers and have not received any reimbursement for students admitted under Right to Education scheme.

They had earlier in February asked the government to cap the limit of fees concession to 15 per cent, demanded waiver on property tax, water bills and had submitted a memorandum of the same to Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar.

The Karnataka Private Schools’ Parents’ Associations’ Coordination Committee has urged the government not to give in to pressure being exerted by private schools to revoke the order. Demanding a fee determination committee, parents alleged the school associations have been creating an unnecessary ruckus. They also had warned of protests if the order is changed based on the school associations’ insistence.

Courtesy:The News Minute