New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected a plea to direct private schools to waiver tuition fees during the lockdown period, stating that efforts made by a teacher to conduct online classes are more than those required in a physical classroom.
The HC also stated that “providing e-education is no-child’s play” as it requires extensive infrastructural arrangements and expenses in arranging access to online platforms to impart education to students during this crisis.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar conducted the hearing through video conferencing.
The bench said, “We wholeheartedly endorse this sentiment. Judicial notice may be taken of the painstaking efforts, made by schools and teachers, in providing education, and holding classes, through online platforms. The effort in physically teaching students, in a regular classroom, cannot even remotely be compared with the effort that the teacher has to expend, in providing online education.”
“So long as schools are disseminating education online, they are certainly entitled to charge tuition fees. Rather, the expenditure involved in disseminating education online may, conceivably, be much greater than that involved in classroom teaching. Providing e-education is no child’s play,” said the court in its 21-page order.
The court further said that unaided private schools, which receive no funds from the government, are entirely dependent on tuition fees for running their educational institutions.