Malvani school waives annual fees of 1,000 students
The Hindu
Principal offers support to parents facing joblessness induced by the pandemic
At a time when parents are at loggerheads with the management of private schools over payment of fees, a 35-year-old principal of an English-medium school at Malvani in Malad has waived the annual fees of 1,000 students, amounting to around ₹80 lakh. Holy Star English High School with 1,500 students charges annual fees of ₹7,000 to ₹8,000 per student till Class 7, and up to ₹10,000 till Class 10. However, several parents have been unable to pay the fees due to joblessness induced by the pandemic. “When I came to know that parents of about 1,000 students are not in touch with the school, I reached out to the students to know the reason. I understood that they had not paid the fees for the last year (2020-2021) owing to financial issues,” said Hussain Shaikh, the founder, trustee and principal of the school.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.
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