Karnataka Private Schools to File Police Complaints Against Parents Who Didn't Pay Fee

The Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) has recently decided to file police complaints against parents who have failed to pay the due school fees as mandated by the High Court of Karnataka. KAMS has stated the same after the state government directed private schools not to withhold transfer certificates of the students whose parents have filed applications to move their wards out from the existing school. The decision was taken in a recent meeting with member schools.

“If parents fail to clear dues before applying for the TC in a bid to pull their wards out of their existing schools, we will file police complaints about ‘cheating’ as they failed to pay the fees mandated by the Karnataka High Court,”  KAMS General Secretary D Shashikumar told The Hindu.

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Earlier in September, the Karnataka High Court had allowed private schools to collect 85 per cent of the tuition fees they charged for the 2019-2020 academic year. The schools were instructed to give a 15% discount on account of facilities remaining underutilised as academic sessions were held online owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A school management member of a private school in North Bengaluru informed The Hindu that parents of nine kids had not paid the fees for the previous academic year. He highlighted that some of the parents have moved their children to government-aided schools while others have shifted them to private schools whose tuition fee is the same as their school without paying the previous tuition fee. He is quoted as saying, “This is a gross injustice to managements like us.”

Now reacting to the KAMS statement, the state secretary of the Voice of Parents Association had said that schools should not stoop down and look at the issue on humanitarian grounds. He also stated that if the matter reaches the court, the school management will be forced to file affidavits on how fee slabs were finalized.

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