Fact Check: Facebook message claiming Telangana has cancelled school fees for 2020-21 is false
By Newsmeter Network Published on 20 Jun 2020 2:25 AM GMT
-NN Dharmasena
Hyderabad: A message claiming that the Telangana government has announced that schools and institutions in the state should not demand fees for the academic year 2020-21 has gone viral on social media.
According to the message, the Chief Minister has decided that no fees will be collected by schools and institutions for the year 2020-21 and only monthly nominal fee will be collected. In case of any complaint, the licence of the schools will be cancelled, it says. The message also states that the education minister has cancelled all online classes from pre-KG to Class V and that no fees should be paid or collected for the same.
Fact Check:
NewsMeter conducted a Facebook search using one of the statements from the message. The results showed many posts, particularly those from 13 June 2020 and later.
The earliest post we could find on Facebook was one by AZ News posted on 13 June at 6.33 p.m. The page admin had also attached a video of a press meet by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
We searched for the video and found that it was a press meet held by the Chief Minister on 19 April. A video of the same press meet was uploaded by Mango News and it can be viewed here.
In the press meet, KCR had said that there are more than 10,000 schools in the state where 30 lakh students study. He had warned the school managements and asked them not to increase the fees for the academic year 2020-21 or collect various fees, except tuition fees. This, too, should be collected as monthly instalments and parents should not be asked to pay the entire annual fees at once, he had said. He had also advised the parents to call 100 if any school management harasses them to pay the fees and said the government will cancel the registration of the school.
Hence, the message that the Telangana government has asked schools not to collect any fees for the academic year 2020-21 is FALSE. The government had directed the schools to not increase the fees and collect the tuition fees on a monthly basis.
Regarding the second part of the message which claims that the education minister has cancelled online classes from pre-KG to Class V is also FALSE.
The Karnataka government had, on 10 June, banned online classes for pre-KG to Class V students. The state education minister, Suresh Kumar, had clarified that all virtual classes, including live, pre-recorded classes, were scrapped and the fees for online teaching had been cancelled.
News reports of the same by The News Minute are available here:
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/karnataka-cancels-online-classes-students-class-5-126277
In Telangana, a campaign has been launched on Change.org in the name of Telangana Parents Association for Child Rights and Safety. The petitioners are demanding a ban on online classes for pre-KG to Class V students in the state.
Link to the petition is here:
Hence, the claim that Telangana has banned online classes for students from pre- KG to Class V is FALSE.
