Cash crunch may lead to closure of some private schools: Owners
Binita Paul: Management representatives of private CBSE schools in north Bengal have said some of the institutions might have to close down as around 90 per cent of guardians are yet to pay tuition fees and certain political parties are instigating parents not to pay the money.
An association of CBSE schools in the region said the school education department should give a clear directive to guardians regarding the fee payment.
The demand was raised in a memorandum drafted by the North Bengal Sahodaya School Complex and addressed to Manish Jain, principal secretary in the state school education department. A delegation of the association submitted the memorandum to Siliguri subdivisional officer Sumanta Sahay on Thursday.
“Private English medium schools had received the memos issued by the state government where it was mentioned that fees couldn’t be hiked because of the lockdown. Accordingly, none of the schools in our association has increased the fees for the current academic session. However, there are some people, including politicians, who have been demanding the waiver of the fees and even instigating guardians not to pay the fees. If such a situation persists, some schools might have no option but to close down,” said S.S. Agarwal, the president of the association.
North Bengal has about 70 CBSE schools with around 1,200 students each.
Agarwal said around 90 per cent of the guardians at a number of CBSE schools had not yet paid the fees and it had resulted in working capital problems for those institutions.
“Schools have regular expenses like salaries of teachers and other staff and cost of maintenance. A handful of schools are running smoothly but most are facing acute financial crunch,” he added.
The CBSE schools, sources said, charge monthly tuition fees ranging from Rs 600 to Rs 3,000. At the beginning of an academic session, the total fee charged from students ranges from Rs 3,000 to Rs 30,000.
In the past few weeks, a number of organisations, including student fronts of some political parties, demanded that the private schools reduce the fees during lockdown. Several posts were made in the social media with “no school, no fee” slogan.
“In such a situation, we want a clear directive from the state education department. Any guardian, who wants a relief in the payment of fees or needs more time, can easily approach the school concerned,” said the principal of a prominent CBSE school in Siliguri.
The schools said the government should direct the guardians to pay the fees for the whole academic year.
“The education department should also tell the guardians to start paying the fees by June 30 as salaries have to be disbursed in the following month,” the principal said.
Told about the CBSE schools’ demand, Sandipan Bhattacharya, the president of the Guardians’ Forum of North Bengal, said: “We do not support the ‘no school, no pay’ demand. Guardians should pay the fees. But simultaneously, we feel the tuition fees are enough to cover expenses like salaries and the cost of maintenance of the schools. The schools should rethink if additional charges under different heads are needed.”
SDO Sahay said he had received the memorandum.
“Representatives of different CBSE schools have said there are rumours in Siliguri that some English medium schools are pressuring guardians to pay the fees and claimed the situation is actually different. I have received their memorandum and will forward it to the appropriate authority,” said Sahay.
