Private schools collecting fee from students’ homes

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Mahendragarh, July 27

Unable to pay staff salaries amid the Covid lockdown, some private schools in Narnaul are learnt to have told their teachers to visit houses of their students to collect fee so as to get their pending dues cleared.

The visits are being made on the pretext of checking homework even as the number of Covid cases have been spiralling in the district.

Some parents have even clicked pictures while paying fee to the teachers to keep it as “proof”. A few such photos have gone viral on social media.

A lawyer whose grandson studies at a prominent school in Narnaul says a female teacher came to their residence and requested for the fee. “I gave her Rs 5,400. What could have we done when the school authorities reached our doorstep and asked for money!” he says.

Another parent, who has a relative employed as a teacher in a reputed school of the area, says the managements have made it clear to their staff that collecting fee from home is the only way left to secure salaries.

Anil Kaushik, president of Progressive Private Schools Association, Narnaul, confirms such a trend is prevailing in the town.

“Teachers visiting students at their houses for fee is not only setting a wrong precedent, but also poses risk of Covid spread. The schools promoting such a practice must mend their ways,” adds Kaushik.

A school owner, however, justifies the move claiming they too have been hit hard by Covid.

“Forget profit, we have been struggling to pay salaries to our staff. Whatever savings we had have been exhausted. The government expects us to clear salaries, but turns a deaf ear when we appeal for relaxation in taxes and bills,” he maintains.

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