Hyderabad: Parents' body seeks slash in school fee

Hyderabad: In view of the apprehensions expressed by the parents' association over the issue of reopening of schools from February 1, Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy assured parents of looking into the issue of violation of GO No 46 and removal of students from online classes in the name of shortage of attendance.

She also assured them of filing of cases against the schools violating the rules, and ordered the private schools to not to collect Aadhaar details of students. The Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA) has specifically requested the Minister to decide a percentage of fee reduction on account of Covid pandemic and loss of income of parents and decide the fee to be paid in proportion to the salaries and rents paid by private schools.

They also sought to speed up the constitution of Fee Regulation Committee, directing the private schools to furnish break up of fee collected in the name of tuition fee and to insist on the teaching and non-teaching staff of schools undergo Covid-19 test before attending to school duties.

Expressing their concern, the Telangana Recognised School Managements' Association (TRSMA) asked for instructions for payment of fee as per the GO No 46, give priority to teachers for vaccination coverage, rope in local bodies for sanitisation of private schools for the safety of children. This was because the schools were not allowed to charge the sanitation fee separately.

They also asked to allow students of Class 1 to 8 to visit the schools for submission of assignments, corrections and clearing their doubts.

The TRSMA asked to extend the academic year till July 30 and release comprehensive academic calendar, promotion of students based on their summative assessments, making attendance compulsory for online or physical classes and notify SSC examinations in May.

The Telangana Junior Colleges Management Association (TJCMA) has asked for the official approval of a 30 per cent reduction in the syllabus, notifying the examination schedule and examination pattern. The TJCMA secretary Gowri Satish said that the Minister had responded positively.

Similarly, the Private Engineering College Management Association, represented by Gowtham Rao has told that the colleges were ready to follow the guidelines of the State government. However, they asked it to release the pending due of fee reimbursement given the precarious economic situation being faced by the colleges in the wake of Covid.