An aggrieved parent of The Indian Public School (TIPS), Coimbatore have questioned the management’s move to stop online study link of his wards, after he denied to pay fees demanded by the school against High Court Order, dated July 17, 2020.
An aggrieved parent of The Indian Public School (TIPS), Coimbatore has questioned the management’s move to stop online study link of his wards, after he denied to pay fees demanded by the school against High Court Order, dated July 17, 2020.
Coimbatore: Despite a clear High Court order mandating schools and the parents to simmer down with the ongoing tussle in terms of paying fees during these pandemic times, some schools haven't gotten it right.
Among such schools is the The Indian Public School (TIPS) in Coimbatore who allegedly are challenging a parent of two children by suspending them from online classes in bargain to remit second term fees along with field trip cost, clearly flouting the HC Order dated July 17, 2020.
In this case, the distraught father of the two children who are studying in LKG and Std 1 in TIPS Coimbatore has written numerous emails to the School Director for redressal. "However, the school which had no concrete answer to my queries had daringly suspended my wards from all online classes", according to the parent.
"Such actions are a direct violation of child rights" , say experts from child rights groups.
"All my pleas including e-mails citing clear indication by the HC on how to collect fees, had fallen in deaf ears. Instead, all I had to hear from the school was that they are not bound by such laws as they follow IB syllabus", recalls the parent.
The High Court Order
The High Court judgement specifically relating to the issue of collection of school fees passed on July 17, 2020 mandates schools to only collect 75% of the tuition fees alone to help the school manage their expenses, until the pandemic is controlled and kids can resume normal school.
This 75% should be collected in the following manner: 40% fees to be collected on or before August 31, 2020 and the balance 35% to be collected once the physical in-person classes commence. In the meantime, the schools were clearly ordered not to discriminate or harass kids, in any manner.
Few days back, this TIPS Coimbatore issue was reported in NDTV first and subsequently SimpliCity went through all the communication between the parent and the school to authenticate the issue.
All the allegations by the parent and the subsequent replies from the school through numerous emails points clear flouting of the HC order, in terms of fee collection.
The aggreived parent who had initially raised the issue with the school had already paid the first-term fee of Rs 80,000 for the Class 1 student in May.
"While the court explicitly has instructed the schools to only collect 75% of the tuition fee, TIPS Coimbatore had asked parents of Class 1 to pay ₹55,000 as Tuition fee and ₹25000, towards uniforms and annual material fees, a total of Rs. 80,00 for first term. However, we have paid fee in full for the first term too for our kid studying in LKG", as per the parent.
The Issue
After repeated reminders from the school over phone calls, the parent had paid the first term fee in full on May 26th, 2020. When the parent apparently questioned the need to pay fees when schools are shut down, the school has reportedly promised to commence online classes, shortly.
On August 21, the school had corresponded to the parent reminding to pay the second term fee. "Repeated reminders were sent in September requesting to remit the fee with immediate effect. Baffled by the school's fee reminder which is against the HC order, I had then questioned the school on the premise they are requesting the fee inspite of a standing HC order?", informed the parent.
In his communications to the school regarding the second term fee, the parent had cited his financial constraints due to the pandemic and reinstated that he has no legal grounds to pay the second term fee.
He added that further shocking was the break up of the second term fee which included 'field visit' fee and other items which is not to be collected as per the Court order. So, the parent had rightfully requested the school to adjust the first term fee which comes to more than 40% of the yearly tuition fees which the High Court and State Government has stipulated for the schools to collect before August 31, 2020.
While the parent had raised the plea with the school management repeatedly over multiple emails, the school kept dodging the real issue. "They went further aggressive and suspended my wards from.accessing online classes from October 2 onwards. When questioned they cleverly masked it behind technical issues, while the screenshot of the blocked message is quite unambiguous", clarified the parent.
While probing about this issue, we found more students from TIPS belonging to different classes been blocked off from the online classes. "Magically, the 'technical issues' cited by the school vanished immediately for students who remitted their fees", lamented few parents who requested anonymity.
What's more unreasonable in this scenario is that TIPS Coimbatore which demands full fees from the parents had implemented pay-cuts for staff (teaching and non-teaching) salaries by more than 25%, as confirmed to us by teachers and staff from their various campuses.
So, while the school has reduced it's expenditure drastically, its evident that the school management continually kept hounding the parents who have morally paid more than the stipulated amount of fees, as per court directives. The parents allege that even if they say they've adjusted the fee for the uniforms, "where are the uniforms?" they ask.
Schools like TIPS are places where mostly children from the economically affluent families study. "Most parents don't question the school on full fees collection. They fear they might get portrayed as financially insecure to the school and peers", said other parents who had faced similar issues in the school.
Response from TIPS
When we contacted TIPS Coimbatore to enquire about this, Thara Mohan, the School Director pointed out that the parent who has putforth these allegations has done it for publicity, that online classes are not mandatory and the issues faced by the parent are technical. She also pointed indirectly that this was a problematic parent who had changed three schools for his kids and in her last message to the parent she had informed the parent that their 'parent behavior' will not affect the kids.
Questioning back on her allegations that as to how a child studying LKG and 1st grade would have changed three schools? And, if online classes are optional, why would the school demand the second term fee? And, suspend them from online classes when it has been questioned? We did not receive any answers.
While speaking to SimpliCity, KM Karthik, Founder of AIPCEU Teachers Association said, "It is absurd to think that IB schools do not come under the control of the government, as it is an international syllabus. All the schools in the country come under the control of the Central and State Governments. The law is common for all. Minting money from parents and singing famine songs to teachers is a drag on any school. The Income Tax Department should conduct a quick inquiry into such schools. Many private school colleges, which bullied parents and students during the Corona period, have doubled their profits in black money. The government must immediately take appropriate action."
The said parent has even forwarded the complaint to the District Collector K Rajamani and to the Chief Education Officer.
While we enquired students of few other top schools in Coimbatore, the fee payment has been left to the parents and they have not been forced nor the children have been discriminated. While the State government has taken all necessary steps to ease the pressure on schools and students, such discriminatory actions from the school management leaves huge mental scars for the kids.
Hopefully, the government can look into such cases and immediately initiate action on such erring schools who are blatantly transgressing the court orders, opine affected parents.
According to parents, "The lockdown had severely affected financially us in many ways. And, such malpractices and immoral behaviour by schools leave us in futher pain and we are clueless to fight against the school managements fearing possible discrimination meted on our wards, after regular classes resume."
If your kids are studying in a school where such discrimination happens, please contact the Chief Education Officer or the District Collector.