Gujarat govt's order to not charge school fees till lockdown struck down

The decision of Gujarat government prohibiting private schools from charging any fees from the students till the physical opening of schools was struck down by the high court on Friday, giving relief to self-financed schools which have been agitating citing expenses in running online classes.

Soon after the order, the government issued a statement saying that it would comply with the order and would not challenge it.

Calling the government's decision "absurd", the division bench of chief justice Vikram Nath and Justice J B Pardiwala ordered to remove clause-4 from the resolution that had prohibited the schools from charging any fees from students for tuition or any other activities till the lockdown is over. The court said schools and government should discuss, negotiate and arrive at a conclusion which strikes a balance beneficial to all concerned parties.

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The bench also suggested structuring fees in a manner as decided by private hospitals for treating coronavirus patients. The state government had issued a government resolution following litigation filed in the high court against hike in the school fees and situation of parents reeling under pay cuts and slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the decision, several associations of affected schools protested the move and approached the high court against the provision.

The resolution stated that after the high court order on June 19, the education department worked on several issues including modalities for providing online education by schools and how to make the learning effective for younger children.

It said that it also had to clarify to the court on school fees being charged during the lockdown and reports of students' admissions being cancelled for not submitting their fee. Therefore, after deliberation, the government decided to do away with school fees until they opened physically.