Telangana: HSPA gripes about fee collection by private schools

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA) gave a representation to Education Minister Sabitha Indira Reddy complaining against the private schools in Telangana accusing them of defying the Government Order 46.

An HSPA delegation led by its working president Seema Agarwal said that the State government had given hope for lakhs of parents by issuing GO 46 to provide the much-needed relief during the times of pandemic. However, none of the private schools has implemented the same in true spirit. Instead, the schools have manipulatively worked around the previous years' fee structures for their own advantage and continue to exploit parents by forcing and charging unjustified fee during the corona times for the last six months, they said.

The delegation highlighted how pandemic fee relief has been announced in various other States like Assam, Odisha and West Bengal. Very recently, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy had announced a 30 per cent reduction in private school fee, they added.

Contrarily, the private schools in Telangana have been defying even the State government GOs and direction of the Telangana Chief Minister. This raises several doubts in the minds of parents in the State whether the private schools have become more powerful than the State government?

They asked when the schools themselves do not follow, then what morals and ethics the schools would teach our children, the future citizens of the State and the country?" they asked.

The HSPA urged the Minister to direct the education department officials to take strict action against the schools violating GO 46. Also, to direct the education department to issue clear guidelines regarding the definition of tuition fee for online classes. Besides, the department officials to take time-bound action on the complaints registered by the parents.

Further, they insisted that the private schools should not take any new admissions and start the process for the academic year 2021-22 until the State Education department makes announcements.

The HSPA requested the education department to take stringent action against the erring private schools showing scant respect to orders and directions of the State government and Telangana Education Department, including derecognition of some schools or withdrawal of their NOCs for not adhering to the rules and regulations.