Dated: 5th August, 2020

To,

            The Principal,
             Somerville International School, Noida

Subject: Application for reduction in regular-fee amid ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Respected Madam,

                                    It is brought to your kind notice that some of the students of the Somerville International School were not able to access online classes as on 4-8-2020. While some presumed that there was a technical glitch, some were unsure about this non-availability of online class session. Some tried to get in touch but were not able to get any reply in this regard. Discussing with other parents we realize that this could be due to non-payment of the fee. However, there was no communication by the school in this regard.

            As everyone is aware of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, there is hardly any sector (business or private) which has not faced economic crunch during this pandemic. Many parents have to face reduction in salaries while many businesses were non-operational due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions. Due to these issues many parents are facing burdened by the regular full-time fees charged by the school amid this ongoing pandemic.

            When the schools were fully operational (before Covid-19 pandemic), our children stayed in the school under the guidance of teachers from 8Am-2:00PM and the fees surely covered all the infrastructure costs incurred by the school. However, during online class sessions this time has reduced to 2 hours.

            While we appreciate the efforts made by teachers and Somerville International School during online class sessions, we somehow feel that the shift from full-time to online class has incurred further additional costs on parents in the form of following costs:-

a)    Costs to arrange high speed and reliable Internet Connections.
b)    Arrangement/Monitoring of 2 Hour Sessions by the parents for technical issues at home (if any).
c)     Arranging laptop/computer and AC for the children during hot/humid temperature.
d)    Arranging printouts and scanned copies of the homework.

Also, kids are spending more time online but despite that they feel deprived of the actual school environment where they have grown up learning, and indulging in various extra-curricular activities like Sports, Music and Dance in a group sessions within school premises (before the pandemic).

            Keeping in mind some of these issues and equally considering the economic downturn of the Covid-19 faced by some parents, we hereby request you to waiver-off 50% school fee for the online class sessions of parents who have been impacted by this economic downturn of Covid-19. Also, we would request you to waiver off summer holiday fee during which our country witnessed some of the strictest lockdowns affecting salaries and jobs of millions in this country.

We do hope that the Somerville International School which is under the aegis of Lott Carey Baptist Mission whose mission is to work for the upliftment of the society as a whole will consider our humble request. We hereby request you to kindly grant 50% waiver-off in the monthly tuition fee for the online class sessions and support students and parents of the Somerville International School who are impacted by this economic downturn amid Covid-19 pandemic.                                                                                           

Your's Sincerely
Parents, Somerville International School