Strict action initiated against private schools demanding fees during lockdown: Punjab Education Minister

Chandigarh: Punjab education minister Mr. Vijay Inder Singla said the education department has started acting tough against the schools which are asking the parents to pay fees during the lockdown period by defying Punjab government directions. The cabinet minister said that despite the repeated instructions, there were reports about some schools who have asked the parents to pay the fees of their wards after the results and strict action is being taken against them. He added that the show cause notice have been issued to La Foundation School Sangrur, DAV Public School Bhupindra Road Patiala, Bhupindra International School Patiala, Delhi Public School Ludhiana, Angels Paradise School Amritsar and Mount Litera Zee School Faridkot.
The education minister also cautioned other schools not to defy instructions and said that if any violation will come to light in future; the concerned school would be sealed through district magistrate before seeking any reply.
Mr. Singla said that the education department had issued an order dated March 23, 2020 in which all the private schools in the state have been asked to reschedule their admissions for 2020-21. He added that wide these orders, the schools were directed to provide window period of atleast 30 days for submission of fees after the situation gets normalised. He said that the schools have also been directed not to charge any late fees or fine from the students for this period. He added that after the issuance of these orders, the schools were regularly being warned of strict action for defying the direction through various means including press.
“Show cause notices have already been issued to the violators and they have been given a 7-day period to file their reply against the violation. If they failed to give satisfactory reply, we are going to cancel their affiliation or no objection certificate (NOC),” Mr Singla said.
He said that parents from all over the state could directly lodge such type of complaints on his email; [email protected].
The cabinet minister said that Coronavirus is a worldwide disaster and due to the lockdown, the parents are not able to pay the fees even through online banking options. He added that the spread of coronavirus has brought down all the businesses to a standstill and the private schools should also cooperate with the state government by following its directions.