Ahmedabad: The Gujarat state education department has issued a Government Resolution (GR) saying private schools cannot take any kind of fees for the purpose of tuition, co-curricular activities till the schools are closed. The schools are also not allowed to hike fees for academic session 2020-21.
The state government’s decision came as a shock to the self-financed schools that immediately went into a huddle. The private authorities have decided to suspend all academic and administrative work from Thursday.
They are firm on their decision till the state government withdraws the resolution. Few institutions even issued circulars suspending all online classes and called the demands “totally unreasonable and absolutely unacceptable”.
Issued on July 16, the GR said that the amounts deposited by the parents would later be adjusted to the fees. No school can expel any student for not paying fees till June 30. “Schools cannot charge for any facility not provided by them,” the GR added.
The GR came after several Public Interest Litigations (PILs) were filed in the Gujarat High Court, which included the school fees issue too.
“Under High Court’s order of June 19, 2020, the education department had to work on issues including modalities for online education provided by private schools, to deliberate how effective this online education is for younger children, clarification on fee charged by schools during lockdown period and cancelling admission of students who have not submitted fee till June 30,” stated the GR. “The state government has decided that schools during the period they were closed, till they resume, they cannot charge any kind of tuition fee,” the GR stated.