The state government has directed private schools to charge only tuition fees for the months of the lockdown and refrain from expelling students or mounting pressure on parents for delay in payments.

According to a directive used by the school education and literacy department o Thursday, private schools holding online classes could only charge monthly tuition fees during the lockdown and refrain from increasing fees for the 2020-21academic session.

The directive, which explained the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on the economy, also asked schools to forego all other miscellaneous charges during the lockdown period. The directive, sent to principals and management committees across the state, also acknowledged that teachers and staff were eligible to get full salary and specified that schools violating norms were open to being penalised.

The government admitted that many parents were not getting their salaries on time during the lockdown period and businesses were also not doing well. In such a situation, it would be unfair to mount pressure on any parent for payment of fee, it stated. The government also agreed that schools too were bearing the brunt of the lockdown financially.

The directive asked schools not to charge fine for late payment of fee during this period. “Schools shall not indirectly mount pressure on parents for payment of fee,” the directive said.

It was solely the school administration’s responsibility to provide ID and password to all the enrolled students for online classes, the directive said. Schools, it further stated, should not debar any student from attending online classes even if the student has failed to pay monthly tuition fees.

This is the first official directive from the government regulating fee charged by private schools during the lockdown period. Early this month, state education minister Jagannath Mahto chaired a meeting with school principals and representatives of parents’ associations, and decided to waive all fees other than tuition fees for the lockdown period.

The government directive on Thursday also brought relief to teachers and non-teaching staff of private schools. It asked schools to not make any deduction in the salary of teachers and non-teaching staff citing lockdown as a reason for the same.

Schools, the directive said, shall not hike fee or charge additional fee under any new sub-category from parents during the lockdown period. “Schools shall not charge annual fee, commutation fee or development fee for the lockdown period. No school shall hike its tuition fee during this period,” the directive stated.

The president of Jharkhand Parents' Association, Ajay Rai welcomed the government directive and claimed that it was the result of his association's and parents' combined efforts that led to the decisions.

“More than 70 per cent of parents are not in the condition to pay tuition fee during the lockdown. We raised this issue before the government, and I am glad that our minister has asked schools not to pressurise parents for paying fee on time,” said Rai.