Panel of school principals and parents discuss school fee issue in Ten News webinar
In a webinar organized by the Ten News team, a five-member panel of school principals and parents deliberated on the fee structure of the schools in Gautam Budh Nagar district and other concerns of the parents amidst the global health emergency.
During the webinar, Noida Parents Association Chief Yatendra Kasana urged Ascent International School’s Principal Birendra Bansal to clarify on what components of school fee will be charged.
Bansal said, under Fee regulation act, there are two components of fee – composite fee and optional fee. Composite fee includes tuition fee which is defined. There is also annual fee which is charged two times a year.
Yatendra Kasana pointed out that earlier there were total 32 components of composite fees which were been charged by the schools, to which Bansal gave assurance that only tution fee should be charged now and that too monthly, not quarterly.
During the webinar, Grads International School’s Principal Aditi Basu Roy raised several issues that schools are facing amid the lockdown.
Roy said that all the expenses of the school are funded by the money paid by the parents. If all parents default on their due fees then it would be really difficult to run the school.
Giving an example of a school bus, she said, even though the oil cost has came down to zero, there are still other expenses such as salaries of driver and conductor and maintenance charges.
She raised concern that those who are financially stable are also not paying fee amid the crisis.
She pointed out that 10-12 lakh fee dues are pending from the last year and the school paid the salaries in March by taking bank loan.
Another parent Vaibhav Jain said that amid the lockdown many expenditures of the schools have came down, so schools should be transparent and share their expenditure.
If a school was spending Rs. 100 earlier and is now spending Rs. 60, then the school should make it public which will then make everyone pay by their own will.
Yatender Kasana at the end raised an important issue that people who have lost their jobs should not be bound to pay fee, to which Basu said that they have been waiving the fee and giving discounts to people who are unable to pay fees.
