Parents file police case against Glendale Academy over fee issue

Hyderabad: Parents of Glendale Academy pupils have filed a police complaint against the school for allegedly not abiding by government orders not to charge the full fee during the lockdown.

Under government order (GO) 46, schools are mandated to charge only a nominal fee, paid monthly, as a relief measure for parents in view of the economic distress due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Some of the parents who filed the complaint against Glendale said the school has been charging the full fee despite the government order. One parent said, “We have written several emails and sent representations to the management to review the fee being charged. We demanded to know the break-up of the 'term fee' being levied, but the management has never provided us a satisfactory answer.”

The parents demanded that the school charge only a nominal tuition fee on a monthly basis since students are taking only three hours of online classes.

Rejecting the parents' charges, Minu Salooja, assistant director of the Glendale Education Group, said the complaint was for the education department to deal with, not the police. “Registering a police complaint is not just.”

The school said it has complied with GO 46 to roll back the fee to last year’s level and to collect it on a monthly rather than term basis.

Responding to complaints that students' access to online classes has been blocked if they had not paid the fees, the management said, “Some parents who have lost a job or had to close their business have approached us individually and we felt that it was our responsibility to support them and we have done so.”

Sub-inspector Balraj of the Rajendra Nagar police station, who is dealing with the complaint, said the police would do a detailed inquiry into the case.

There has been no response from the education department.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Friday took cognizance of a complaint filed by Telangana Parents Sssociation for Child Rights and Safety (TPACRS) regarding school tuition fee and online classes regulations in Telangana.

NCPCR has issued a notice to the commissioner and director of school education to examine the matter and take immediate action in accordance with state laws and regulatory norms. The commission also asked the school education department to consider following the model guidelines to regulate fees in private schools.