Private Schools In Odisha Oppose Fee Waiver

Cuttack: The private school association here has strongly opposed waiver of school and other institutional fees.

Hearing a PIL by the Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangh, the Orissa High Court had sought a reply from the private schools in this regard. The next hearing is on May 26.

In the intervention petition, the Confederation of Odisha Public Schools (COPS) contended that most of the 2000 schools had taken loans from the nationalised banks and private financial institutions to run their institute.

“These schools have monthly expenditure like the salary of the teaching and non-teaching staff, electricity bills, water cess etc and other daily expenditure. To meet the aforesaid expenses these schools entirely depend on the school fees deposited by the students,” the petition said.

It further said 90 per cent of private schools have made arrangements for online classes for the students from 9 am to 4 pm through Zoom, WhatsApp and other apps and providing them with the soft copies of the study materials either through WhatsApp or mails amid the lockdown.

“If the school fee is waived, it will not be possible for the schools to pay salary to these teachers,” it pointed out.