Many parents have complained that the La Martiniere schools are charging them for school bags along with books at a time when going to school is uncertain because of the lockdown forced by the coronavirus.

Traditionally parents have not been compelled to buy bags but this time they are, the parents alleged. Is it ethical for the school to make such demands during a year of “exceptional hardship”? a parent asked.

More than a month into online classes, many parents have procured books. They want the liberty to choose which text books they want instead of being asked to buy the entire set.

Many students of junior classes have unused exercise books left. Their parents said they should be allowed to buy exercise books only when their earlier ones have been exhausted.

The lockdown has severely hurt the economy and many salaried employees have lost their jobs or are having to do with a reduced salary. Parents said they were struggling with expenses and any extra payment under the current circumstances would be taxing.

Keeping in view the parents’ ordeal, the state government had asked private schools not to hike the fee this year and to be sympathetic to parents who would be unable to pay.

Metro has reported that parents of most students of schools across the city are unable to pay the fees because of the economic slump that had started before the Covid-19 outbreak in India and was aggravated by the lockdown.

Parents also fear that if a school like La Martiniere does something like this. it might set a trend for other schools to follow.

“People are already struggling to make ends meet and we are borrowing old books. We might not want to buy the whole set... we should have the option to choose only the books we need to buy and not the whole set. Please minimise wastage, we should learn this. It’s high time now,” a parent said.

The online order for books started on Monday and will continue till June 1, spread out across classes from upper nursery to Class XII. The school has said that the payment has to be made digitally and “directly to the vendor”.

A parent who has ordered Class V books has written on the Facebook page of the schools: “School bag and a lot of stationery we do not require have been added in the set due to which the price has gone high. We were not given the option to omit these things... Kids need to learn to treasure what they have and learn to live with less material possession. New bag, new geometry box, new ruler etc is not required every year.”

Another parent has written: “...Please as a policy let us try and sensitise our children and be responsible ourselves... instead of new covers and new stationery I would have wanted them to donate that money to those who have lost everything... if we don’t do this now (being part of the small segment of the privileged lot of this state.. even after seeing the havoc around us) then When?”

The school told The Telegraph that each institution has rules that should be followed.

“The bag is part of the school uniform with a school logo, which parents are being asked to buy. Every institution has rules and parents are expected to follow them,” said Supriyo Dhar, the secretary of the schools.

He added the price of the bag was not unusually high.

“As for the books, we are not forcing parents or saying that they have to buy. They can choose to buy on their own as well. Buying the entire set is not something new this year and a practice the school has followed over the years for the convenience of parents. The school is not involved in any monetary transactions and the entire payment is being made to the vendor by the parent,” said Dhar.

Buy list

(For a student of Class V)

• Text books
• Exercise books
• Stationery (includes the bag, colours, geometry box)