Bengaluru: Private schools that have collected full tuition fees for the previous year have been asked by the State Government to repay parents 15 per cent of those payments collected.
According to the Government order, schools can either refund the additional tuition fees or reduce it from the fees due for the current year, 2021-22.
The Karnataka Government, in an order dated January 29, 2021, urged private schools that follow the CBSE, ICSE, and other syllabuses to reduce their fees by 30 per cent. This order had been challenged in the Supreme Court by private school officials.
On September 16, this year, the High Court, after hearing both sides, issued an order reducing school fees by 15 per cent. However, the majority of private educational institutions had failed to comply with the court’s order. In light of this, the Department of Primary and Secondary Education’s under-secretary has passed the order.
The Karnataka Association of Managements of English Medium Schools (KAMS) urged the government to provide a clear order. KAMS General Secretary D. Shashikumar stated in a release that the government, which had passed the order correctly in English, had bungled the Kannada version. He has demanded to make the order right.
“According to the High Court and Supreme Court orders by the State Government and English’s order rightly states that a 15 per cent annual fee cut should be implemented. However, the Kannada directive specifies that only a monthly fee be collected. This is clearly a violation of the court order,” he stated in the press release.
