The Management of Independent CBSE Schools Association (MICSA) has asked its member schools to reach out to parents under stress and provide them help in whatever way they could and devise an action plan to stabilise the situation for children and parents.
Only recently, the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) had asked its member schools affiliated to the State syllabus to reduce the fee by around 20 to 25%.
MICSA has sent an advisory to its 200 member schools earlier this week and stated they should extend whatever help they can to parents who are in financial distress. Following this, school managements are examining the situation on a case-to-case basis and are either offering concessions or waiving off fees for a section of the parents.
“We need to keep in mind that the situation is not the same for all the parents. It would be a great service to humanity if we could identify parents under stress and reach out to them with whatever help we could extend. This would be a better service than thinking of concessions across the board. It is time that we address individual predicaments,” the association in a letter to the schools has stated.
Mansoor Ali Khan, General Secretary, MICSA, said that they had left it to the prerogative of school managements and parents to engage in a dialogue and help parents in anyway they could. “The finances of each school are different and it is best if they devise a strategy to help parents,” he said, and added that there was a need for parents to be transparent about their finances.
Many parents had lost jobs or faced salary cuts during the pandemic. As a result, many are unable to pay fees. The association has even suggested that schools “organise voluntary support of parents to compatriots in need”.
Ruchitha S., a parent whose child studies in a CBSE-affiliated school, felt this was a viable solution. “Many parents like me who are software engineers have faced no salary cuts can afford to pay the full fees, but some parents who have lost jobs are finding it difficult to pay the fees,” she said.
