Hyderabad: Parents stage protest at Niraj school against fee collection

Hyderabad: Tension prevailed at Niraj Public School in Ameerpet when scores of parents came together to stage a protest against the school's demand for payment of school fees of their wards.

Nearly, 150 parents gathered outside of the school following a general circular issued to them through the school's parents portal mobile application. According to the parents, they submitted a representation to the school on June 13, regarding the payment of fee and increase in the fee citing the hardships faced by them.

However, the school circular issued on June 18 said, "once the physical school resumes, the regular academic year fee including lab fee, activity fee, extracurricular fee, etc will be charged, exempting the fee already paid during the lockdown period."

Taking exception to this, the parents gathered outside the school premises to stage a protest against the circular. Later, in a representation submitted to the school principal, the parents submitted a charter of their demands, citing the State government order number 46 dated Aril 21.

They reminded to the school management that the government directions have clearly said that school affiliated to the State, CBSE, ICSE or international boards, shall not increase any kind of fee during the academic year 2020-21. IT also directed all the private unaided schools to charge only tuition fee monthly until further orders.

Adding to this, they asked the school management to sympathetically consider and not to insist on any other fee component except the tuition fee for the academic year 2020-21. The asked the school not to demand lab fee, activity fee, extracurricular fee, sports fees etc and other charges from them for the entire academic year.

Further, they have also demanded a concession of 25 per cent in the regular tuition fee for the academic year 2020-21. Because the lockdown restrictions have just started to ease and the pandemic had completed the routed their normal life.