Private schools threaten to strike off names of students after August 10

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 7

The private school management body, Recognised Affiliated Schools Association (RASA), has threatened to strike off the names of the students whose parents are unable to pay fee or submit application for fee waiver till August 10.

Going by the High Court order, schools have the right to decide on how much fee waiver is to be given to the student and it will be decided only after parents submit an application with the required documents to prove that they have been hit economically due to Covid-19 pandemic — Harpal Singh UK, Legal Counsel , RASA

The statement has come from Harpal Singh UK, legal counsel for Punjab RASA and Chairman, Amritsar RASA, who says that as per the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling, schools have the right to decide case-to-case fee waiver.

This was a pressure tactic adopted by the schools to mislead and threaten parents. — Satinder Bir Singh, DEO

“Going by the High Court order, schools have the right to decide on how much fee waiver is to be given to the student and it will be decided only after parents submit an application with the required documents to prove that they have been hit economically due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In this case, the schools have to decide on the fee waiver within two weeks. But this does not imply that students continue their online classes without paying the fee even once.”

UK also said the schools would have full authority to strike off the student’s name after a considerable time, if the parents do not submit the fee waiver application or deposit the fee. “The schools are ready to defer fee but only for the needy students.” He said after August 10, schools would be well within their right to strike off the student’s name and no other private school will allow admission to the student until they pay their fee. The private schools defend their case by saying that teachers’ salaries have to be paid since they have been taking online classes throughout the lockdown.

DEO Satinder Bir Singh, meanwhile, said this was a pressure tactic adopted by the schools to mislead and threaten parents. “As per the court order, private schools cannot strike off the name of the students during the Covid-19 period on account of non-payment of fee. In case any school goes against the order and does that, parents can file a complaint with us and we will take strict action.” He said the claims by the Amritsar RASA representative were ‘misleading’ and against the HC order.

Most parents in the city, whose wards are studying in private schools, have been receiving messages from schools about a deadline for paying the fee. “We received the message this week that the fee has to be paid till a particular date or else the online classes of our children will be discontinued. This is the case with most of the parents,” said a parent from the city.