Parents need to pay 70% fees during the period schools remain closed due to COVID-19

ORDER

The Court, by an interim order, and till the situation gets normalised, directs the school authorities to allow the students to continue their studies online and allow them to deposit 70% of TUITION FEES element from the total fees being charged for the yea.

By UdaipurTimes Team Sep 8, 2020, 00:26 IST

70% of TUTION fees to be paid in three installments - 30 September; 30 November; 31 January

Three days after the Delhi private schools were asked to charge only tuition fees during the COVID19 period by the Directorate of Education, the Rajasthan High Court has asked private schoools in the state to charge only 70% of the tuition fees, during the period the schools remained closed under COVID-19.

ORDER VERBATIM

The Court, by an interim order, and till the situation gets normalised, directs the school authorities to allow the students to continue their studies online and allow them to deposit 70% of TUITION FEES element from the total fees being charged for the yea.

This decision, announced by a single judge bench of Justice SP Sharma of the Rajasthan High Court, was in response to three different pleas filed by around 200 schools of the state. These pleas, by Catholic Education Society, Progressive Education Society, NISA and Jaipur Sahoday challenged the state governments orders that said schools should not charge fees from parents during the time schools were closed in the COVID-19.

Online classes can be discontinued for children whose parents cannot pay the stipulated fees, but schools cannot take the children off role. It needs to be seen how the schools identify with empathy in such cases.

The decision further said that the parents need to pay the 70% tuition fees portion of the slab for the COVID-19 school lockdown period beginning March 2020, in three installments - 30 September, 30 November and 31 January.

Arguing for the petitioners, the lawyers, Dinesh Yadav, Kamlakar Sharma, Sacrota Sharma and Shalesh Prakash Sharma said that privae school incurred huge losses as they were paying teachers salaries and admnistrative salaries and were facing immense working capital issues due to non receipt of fees. Servicing bank loans was another expense.