MYSURU: In a fresh case of a showdown between the management of a private school, and the parents, members of the Royale Concorde School, Bogadi Affected Parents’ Association on Wednesday accused the institution of harassing 141 students over a fee dispute. The aggrieved parents alleged that their pleas and entreaties to the department of public instruction, and the Mysuru district administration had gone unheeded.
On the other hand, Mysuru deputy commissioner KV Rajendra, also chief of the District Education Regulatory Authority (DERA), citing a recent order by the high court, said that the government had no say over the fee structure of private-unaided schools.
Parents’ association members, Siddegowda TM Dhananjaya Gowda, among others alleged that their children, along with wards of those entangled in a dispute with the school management, were being made to sit near the washroom. They further alleged that records were reflecting some of these students as ‘dropouts’ although they were attending classes regularly.
Appealing to the district education committee for help, they said, “We are being asked to pay the fee to a financial technology company. Today, citing delay in payment of the fee, we were asked to pay an additional Rs 100 per day.
We admitted our children to the school only after an assurance was given to us by representatives of the previous management to the effect that the institution would continue with the affordable fee structure. But the new management is now proposing doubling the fee.”
Despite the parents’ readiness to get their children out of the school by collecting transfer certificates, the management was insistent on payment of the revised fee, the parents alleged. Expressing anguish over the treatment being meted out to their children, they urged DPI officials to visit the school to witness how their wards were being targeted.
Principal dismisses allegationsRefuting the charges levelled at the management, school principal Kushy AM said that there was no truth to allegations levelled by only a section of the parents. “The issue that the parents have raised has been discussed, and subsequently, addressed at multiple levels of the government machinery.
The block education officer, the deputy director of public instruction, the local officials of the Central Board of Secondary Education, among others have been made aware of the issue. The school management has initiated legal action against parents levelling these allegations against the institution,” Kushy told TOI.
On issuance of transfer certificate to students, the parents of whom wished to pull them out of the school, she said, “Parents were informed by mail in November that the TCs of their respective children have been kept ready. They can collect the document by settling all the dues. The school has not violated any law.”
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