Glendale, Andrews removing students from online classes over fee issues: HSPA

Hyderabad School Parents Association has alleged that Glendale Academy, Bandlaguda, St Andrews School, Bowenpally, and Mount Literazee School, Manikonda, are arbitrary removing students from online classes and violating the government order.

Under the GO 46, schools are entitled to charge tuition fees from the students

Addressing a media conference, HSPA president Seema Aggarwal alleged that the state government is ignoring all issues raised by the parents.

HSPA also alleged that the schools have stopped many other non-tuition fee activities that were undertaken during the pre-COVID days. This has saved schools significant expenses. Despite that, the schools are insisting on payment of the full fee amount.

“Because of my stand against a high fee, the school has removed my ninth class from the online classes. Many parents are being threatened by schools that their kids will not be registered for CBSE board exams,” said Seema.

Parents are also alleging that students are not allowed to sit in the online exams after parents refused to pay the fee. “Schools have merged the lunch fees with the tuition fee. Schools are charging lunch fee when they are not providing it. When the parents protested about it, schools did not allow their wards to sit in the exam,” said Sikander Shaik, parent of a student studying in Neeraj Public School.

Government dysfunctioning

“Whatever limited laws that exist, are not implemented by the government. Schools are flouting rules. New regulations by the government are half-baked and have several flaws,” HSPA representatives said.

HSPA said the Tirupati Rao report clearly states that no private school can collect donations. “If the schools find the need to increase the school fee, they should submit two years of audit report online in the prescribed format. Hike in fee can be done only by Zonal Fee Regulatory permission,” Seema said.

She said the government is silent about implementing the report. “It is difficult to find even a single provision of law related to fee regulation being implemented by the government. Successive governments have either totally ignored the loot by the schools or at best have paid lip service,” Seema said.

Demands

HSPA has demanded that the government should take stern action against schools that are threatening parents and students. HSPA said schools are forcing parents to pay the full fee. HSPA has asked the government to ensure that GO 46 is implemented in all private schools of Telangana.

They also demanded to declare the academic calendar for all the private schools from September 1 akin to state government schools irrespective of any Board/Curriculum (CBSE, ICSE, and IGCSE & IB). HSPA demanded that no school should reopen until the vaccine for COVID is rolled out.