Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 27: Several private schools including prominent ones are seeking tuition fee from parents of students even as all the educational institutes are closed across Valley since July.
The parents of the school students said that their respective schools have sent them notices through text messages, seeking fee from July to September, when all the educational institutes were shut due to prevailing unrest that started on July 8 with the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani and his two associates.
In the wake of the unrest, normal life across Kashmir remained paralyzed and the educational institutes including schools, both private and Government, remained closed. Though there has been some improvement in the situation but these schools continue to remain shut due to shutdowns called by separatists as part of their protest calendar.
One of the notices sent by a prominent school located in Srinagar to parents read: “Kindly deposit the fee (July to Sep 2016) in J&K Bank Account or school accounts section as per your convenience by or before 10th October, 2016. If you have already paid, kindly ignore the message.” Similar notices asking parents to pay the outstanding fee have been sent by several other schools of Srinagar.
A mother-parent of three, whose wards study in one of the reputed schools of Srinagar located uptown, said: “I wonder for what they are seeking fees when no academic work took place in all these months. Like other kids, my wards were also at home and even now the schools are shut but we have been asked to deposit fee.”
Director School of Education Kashmir, Dr Shah Faesal, when contacted didn’t respond but on being contacted, the president of Joint Coordination Committee of Private Schools, GN Var, said “it is illogical to demand fee at this point”. “I find it illogical. Our stand is that once the situation normalizes, we will then decide about the fee of unrest-hit months,” he said.
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