Bengaluru, (Aryavarth). Priyanka, who hails from Kamanahalli, says that she enrolled her four-year-old son in a local preschool.
She says that during February – March, “I had deposited the entire admission fee in the school, in the hope that from April the school session will start and my son will be going to school. But the coronavirus epidemic changed the whole situation. After paying full fees, schools have been closed indefinitely due to the rapidly growing infection of Covid19. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the lockdown with effect from 24th March. Priyanka is doubtful, whether she will send her son to school even after the lockdown is lifted. Priyanka says that also after the lockdown is removed, I might not be able to send my child to school for a year. The reason being, immense anxiety and fright of getting infected that we are going through. When she spoke to the School management on this matter, they informed her that only 40 per cent of the entire fee would be returned in such cases.
There are many women and parents, including Priyanka, who is upset with arbitrary decisions of schools. They say that when we do not want to send the child to school, then why we should pay the fees? Hundreds of parents of the city are disturbed by this arbitrariness of prep schools. A common complaint is that the amount of fees is huge, and in this challenging time with layoffs in private companies, for many, there is no job in hand. In such a situation, a refund of the fee amount by the preschool authorities would help a lot. It has been learned from the sources that the lockdown is going to be long, but the school management is not ready to return the money. If parents do not want to send children to school to keep them safe, then it becomes the moral responsibility of the school management to understand this demand of the parents and refund back the amount of fees to them. We also tried to speak to several preschools to understand the other side of the story, but they refused to discuss the issue.
The arbitrariness of prep schools
Why talk about Bengaluru only. All the preschools of the country are working similarly. Hundreds of parents spoke to our newspaper, and they told us that people living in different areas of the city are charged differently by the playschool franchises. He also informed that, at the time of admission in preschool, Rupees 40 thousand is charged and some 60 thousand rupees as yearly tuition fee. Parents also say that the government needs to take strict steps in this direction to curb the preschools of charging different rates at different locations. The state government and the central government’s education department should take this issue seriously and intervene in it.
Another parent Deepak says that due to Corona, his business has been shut down for two months. In such a situation, if the child is not going to school, but he has to bear the burden of fees, it will add to his woes. Prakash, who lives in Pie-Layout, says that in these tough times, preschool managers should show some understanding. And if they stick to their decisions, then the government should take some strict action against them.
Note: Parents from any area of the city who are struggling with this problem can directly contact our newspaper ‘Aryavarth Express’. We hope that our newspaper will work towards the solution of your problem and will try our best to bring you justice on your behalf by bringing this subject to the attention of the state government and administration.