S. A. S. Nagar, April 2, 2020 (Yes Punjab News)
Following complaints by parents against private schools collecting fees and donations from students for the 2020-21 academic year, Girish Dayalan Deputy Commissioner SAS Nagar has issued an advisory to all private educational institutions in the district that the admission process and collection of fee for the year 2020-21 for students continuing in the same school may be postponed till further direction, in view of the COVID-19 crisis.
He said that it has come to the notice of the District Administration that some of the Private Schools in the district have fixed first week of April, 2020 as the last date for deposit of school fees. Some others are insisting on payment fees in April and May, and sending reminders to parents through SMS, warning of fines for delayed payments.
In this hour of crisis school management should be mindful of the hardships parents and students are facing and not make fee payment for the current academic year (2019-20) or the next academic year (2020-2021) mandatory during the lockdown period, said he. Due to the epidemic situation, it is not possible for parents of the wards to deposit the school fee as per the schedule fixed by private schools.
In this regard, directions have already issued by the State Education Department to re-schedule the collection of fees by private educational institutions.
Keeping in view the above situation, all the recognized private educational institutions, are directed to reschedule the date for payment of admission fee; and to allow at least one month after normalization for the payment; no penal charges to be levied.
In case is any complaint is received, strict action will be taken. It is further clarified that in case any parent has already deposited the fee, no refund will be made by the school.
