Two city schools put on hold fee hike, amid lockdown

Kolkata, Apr 12 () Two prominent schools in thecity have put on hold their decision to hike fees for the newsession, in response to a plea by the government askingeducational institutes to be "sympathetic" towards parents,amid the difficulties faced by them during the lockdown.

South Point School, one of the largest educationalinstitutes in Asia, said in a statement on Saturday that thefee structure proposed by the school for 2020-21 "shallpresently be held in abeyance".

"The school, being a private and unaided institution,is completely dependent on the fees paid by the guardians tomeet all its expenses and to pay salary to its staff. However,in the prevailing situation...we would like to inform allparents that the fee enhancement proposed by the school forthe academic year 2020-21 is presently being held in abeyance.

"The school shall charge from guardians' bank accountsan ad hoc amount against fees for the months of April and May2020 by a date... We are deferring the collection of othercomponents of fee and other charges that are usually collectedin the month of April, for the time being till we are able toreopen the school," the authorities said in a notice.

The notice also gave assurances that guardians, whomay not have sufficient money in their accounts, will be giventime till May 15 to make the ad hoc payment, with noimposition of fines.

Another private school in the city, DPS North Kolkata,has also announced on its website that it would not increasetuition fees and session charges.

"As you all know we did not increase the fees lastsession, the enhancement of fee was due this year. However,keeping in mind the current situation which has causedfinancial hardships to people, the management has decided notto enhance the tuition and session charges for the new sessionwith regard to the request of West Bengal government," thestatement on the website said.

Don Bosco Park Circus, one of the top ICSE schools inthe city, has posted on its website that "fee payment gatewayhas been disabled for a few days. There will be no late feethis month."

The school, however, did not furnish any other detail.

A south Kolkata English-medium school has deferred feepayment for the next two months.

"Keeping in view the hardships faced by students andtheir parents, Vivekananda Mission School has put off for nowthe payment of bi-monthly fees for the new academic session,"a spokesperson at the institute said. SUSRMS RMS