Parents protest 6 percent fee hike by private schools
Srinagar: The parents association of private school in Kashmir on Saturday staged a protest against the government decision to allow six percent fee hike in private schools.
Earlier, government’s School Fee Fixation Committee (SFFC) issued an order wherein it allowed all the private schools to hike the tuition fee in schools by six percent while as no slab was kept for school which charge monthly fee less than Rs 1000.
On Saturday the parents association staged a protest in Srinagar press enclave and demanded the revocation of the government order in the interest of the parents saying that the private schools were already fleecing parents by charging whopping amount of tuition fee and other charges under various heads.
“The government decision is against the parents as it will allow more fleecing by private schools,” the parents said.
The parents were shouting anti-government slogans and alleged that the government was favoring private schools at the cost of parents and students.
“No parent was taken on board before allowing private schools to hike their tuition fee. The government and its committee constituted to regulate the fee structure in schools seems to support the fleecing by private schools,” the protesting parents said.
The association said they won’t pay any fee in schools till the government will revoke its order.
“We won’t allow government to make education a business in Kashmir. Parents are not ATM machines who will release money at any time for schools,” the parents said.
Earlier the, SFFC chairman had claimed to have taken parents on board while allowing private schools to hike the school fee.
“This is all baseless, no parent or any association has allowed the government to allow fee hike in private schools. Even the existing fee structure is not acceptable to parents and government is allowing further hike,” the parents said.
The parents said they will intensify their protests if the government didn’t revoke the recent order allowing private schools to enhance the fee for students.
KV Correspondent
