Reduced fees: schools in Karnataka to ask for undertaking from parents

With the State government announcing that parents have to pay only 70% of their children’s tuition fees for this academic year, a large number of school managements across the State have decided to make them sign an undertaking promising to pay the full amount if the Government Order is withdrawn.

D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said those parents who have not yet paid the 2020-21 fees but have expressed willingness to do so will be asked to sign the undertaking.

A Government Order on reduced fees was issued on Saturday. “We plan to challenge this in court in the coming week and have sent the GO for legal opinion. However, this may take time and we do not want school managements who are already in financial distress to wait till the issue is resolved,” said Mr. Kumar.

Other associations, however, have accepted the government’s decision and will not be asking parents to sign any undertaking. Lokesh Talikatte, State unit president of the Recognised Unaided Private Schools’ Association, Karnataka, said schools have communicated that there would be a 30% waiver in tuition fees and many parents had stated that they would start making payments from Monday.

“In my schools alone, only 60% of the parents have paid the fees over the past nine months. Soon after the government announced the decision, 5% of them came to the school on Saturday to pay the amount. Others completed the admission formalities for their children,” he said.

Many parents had pulled their students out of private schools and admitted them in government schools citing financial distress. With the fee cuts, some are enrolling their children back in private schools.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the State government issued an order that in case parents have any dispute regarding fees, they can approach a committee that will be set up at the Deputy Director of Public Instruction in Bengaluru and the District Institute of Education and Training principals at the district level.