A week after Indian Govt. announced locked-down, Himachal Pradesh Govt. came forward and said that the Private schools in H.P. will not charge fees during the lockdown period. Which was considered a very harsh decision by Private Schools.

 After Private School Associations reached out to the Govt. The HP Govt. on 23 May, said that Schools would be allowed to charge only the 'Tuition fees' without taking the suggestion/opinions of the parents or students.

We would request the Govt. of Himachal Pradesh to consider:-

·        That 70-80% of the parents earn a living directly and indirectly for tourism in Himachal (especially in tourist Destinations) which is at standstill since the lockdown and in off-season period since last year.

·        Parents have already paid the full school fee for the period of the winter breaks which is to 2-3 months. Some schools have already charged their annual building, registration, admission funds/fees.  

·        New parents of Nursery class have paid a very high admission fee, Registration fee, building Fund in addition to the school fees for the winter breaks.

·        After the lockdown was announced it took schools weeks to figure out ways to move to online classes and some schools still have no system or a very poor system of online education.  Sending homework on WhatsApp cannot be called online education.

·         Schools are and have been taking only 1-2 classes per day for 5 days a week at max.  

  Issues with HP Government’s current order allowing Private schools to collect Tuition Fees.

·        Most Private schools have smartly put their full school fee under 1 heading i.e. ‘tuition fees’ and there is no breakup of the fee structure. 

·        Some Schools are giving a mere Rs 200-300 discount (in the name of no yearly hike) and charging the full school fee as per the order of HP Govt.

·         Charges for extra services/ circular activities such as Transportation, Sports, and music and dance classes which the Govt. has waived-off were always optional for parents/students to take.

We would like to request the Govt. of Himachal Pradesh to kindly look into this very serious matter which is affecting the lives of lakhs of parents and students.

·        Order the Private schools to immediately stop requesting/forcing parents to pay the fees.

·        Form district-level committees chaired by the local MLA’s to look into what each school has done in the name of taking online classes during the Lockdown and ask parents to Send Their feedbacks and opinions.

·        Waive off fees for pre-nursery, nursery, and pre-primary classes as the children of these classes have not learned/benefited from online classes even if they were taken.  

·         The schools which have done a good job in taking online classes should only be allowed to charge the amount equivalent to the salaries of the teachers and waive off all addiction charges.

·       it should not be compulsory to send children to school once they reopen. parents should have the freedom to choose if they want to send their children to school or not. till the time the Pandemic is not over..

 

Thanking you in advance.

Together we can do it and India will Win.

Jai Hind, Jai Himachal.