Telangana: NCPCR sends notice to School Education Director over fees

Hyderabad: Taking cognizance of a complaint from Telangana Parents Association for Child Rights and Safety (TPACRS), the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) issued a notice to commissioner and Director of School Education, Telangana regarding school tuition fee and online classes regulation.

In the notice sent to T Vijaya Kumar, commissioner and director of School Education, Telangana, NCPCR requested to examine the issue of regulating school fee and take immediate necessary action as per the State act/regulatory norms/rules in this regard. "It is pertinent to mention that NCPCR has recommended model guidelines to regulate fee in private schools. In addition, the commission had issued recommendations to all the States/UTs on April 21 regarding fee related issues in private schools during Covid-19 lockdown and safety of children during online classes," the Commission emphasised.

According to the complaint and association's president, Mohd Asif Hussain Sohail, private school managements in Telangana are not following the directives issued by Telangana government under the GO Rt No 46 regarding regulations of school tuition fee during this pandemic. Schools are forcing the parents to pay the fees and not providing them the fees breakdown when asked.

In case of non-payment of fee by parents, schools are not allowing children to take online classes. The complainant also raised his concern towards exposure of small children (upto class 5) to computer/phone screen during online classes. TPACRS had also initiated a petition on change.org to stop the online classes until the guidelines are formulated and more than 1,000 parents from different schools have already signed it.