Parents of Kendriya Vidyalaya students in Kerala have criticised the directive of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan’s Ernakulam regional office to collect revised fee for this academic year with retrospective effect by January 15.
The decision follows the Supreme Court lifting the stay on collection of the increased Vidyalaya Vikas Nidhi (VVN) and computer fee and dismissing a Special Leave Petition filed by the KV Parents’ Association challenging the fee hike.
Though the sanghatan had hiked the fee in 2013 itself, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Parents Association (KVPA) managed to get a stay first from the Kerala High Court and then the Supreme Court in 2014 which continued till 2019. With the lifting of the stay, the KVS authorities recently started seeking the dues for the first, second, and third quarters of this academic year along with the current quarter’s fee. This would force the parents to remit around six times of the normal quarterly fee at once. There are 41 Kendriya Vidyalayas under the Ernakulam region. The VVN for different classes has been hiked from ₹720 and ₹900 to ₹1,500. The computer fee has gone up by ₹150 across the board, according to KVPA representatives.
Reimbursement
N. Prasad, president of the Parent-Teacher Association, Kendriya Vidyalaya, East Hill, Kozhikode, said on Thursday that the KVS misled the apex court by claiming that around 75% of students were entitled to fee reimbursement and the rest were getting the benefits of the Right to Education Act (RTE).
He claimed that over 40% of students in KVs were wards of ex-servicemen who were not entitled to fee reimbursement. Also, though the Supreme Court had clearly said in its order that the KVS authorities could take a call on waiving the dues, they had chosen not to do so. “There is no point in collecting the dues now. The fee collected at a particular time is being used for the requirements arising then itself,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, the KVPA functionaries have reportedly got an assurance from the Deputy Commissioner, KVS, Ernakulam region, that the dues for the preceding academic years would not be collected now.
They are planning to hold a dharna outside the KVS regional office in the coming days.
