Expressing concern over the suicide of a Class X student of a private school in Julapalli mandal in Karimnagar district following alleged harassment by school management demanding tuition fee, private educational institutions have appealed to the parents not to admit their wards in their schools if they are unable to pay fee.
Whenever there was any untoward incident in private schools, various organisations, and students unions would storm their premises and threaten them with dire consequences for no fault of theirs, said managements of the private schools.
“After all, we are not doing any charity. We are providing quality education by collecting nominal fee for payment of salaries to teachers and maintenance of school,” said State secretary of the Telangana Recognised Schools Management association Y. Shekhar Rao.
If parents were unable to pay the fee, they should admit their wards in the government schools and get facilities for free – besides dresses, books, and mid-day meals, he said.
He said parents would not respond to SMS messages about payment of tuition fee even as they would contact the school managements on holidays, examination marks etc.
He said whenever parents received SMS messages about payment of tuition fee, they should call back the school management immediately so that the school would not ask the students about it.
Meanwhile, Telangana Rashtra Teachers Federation (TRTF) district president M. Prathap Reddy said that the government should ensure that the GOs issued on the private school fee structure should be implemented properly.
Stating that there was no monitoring of private schools, he said that they resorted to commercial activities in the name of selling books, uniforms, ID cards, belts etc.
A government school headmaster suggested that the government launch a campaign to educate parents about the importance of government schools.
‘If parents are unable to pay the fee, they should join their wards in the government schools and get facilities for free’
