Schools urged not to deny students from online classes

Kolkata: The state Education department has written to all private schools in the state urging them not to deny the students of online classes for want of payment of fees considering the financial crisis amidst the COVID -19 pandemic. It further requests schools to consider the matter of delayed payment, if any, sympathetically.

The move comes in the wake of some complaints from guardians regarding deprivation of their wards from attending online classes due to their inability to cough up fees due to financial stringency in the lockdown situation. The letter also appeals against increase of any kind of fees including tuition fees and non introduction of any new fee for the academic session 2020-21.

The letter by the Principal Secretary of the department Manish Jain also requests the educational institutions not to charge any fee for services like transport, library, computer lab, etc as the following cannot be rendered during lockdown period. Guardians of a number of private schools affiliated to CBSE and ICSE boards have staged protests against some schools that have been charging fees for services like transport, laboratory etc the facilities of which have not been derived by the students.