PCMC chief says cut fees by 15%, schools likely to do it for poor families and those hit by pandemic
Jyotsna Shinde, PCMC administrative officer (education), said, "After the commissioner's appeal, many schools have said they will reduce their fee by 15 per cent. It is also true that schools said they will give fee cut to poor children."
Officials met principals and representatives of 65 schools from Pimpri-Chinchwad on Saturday to discuss the issue of reduction of school fees (Express photo)
Following an appeal by Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal commissioner Rajesh Patil to reduce school fee in view of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to job losses and financial constraints, the Independent English Schools Association said it will consider reducing fee for families whose financial condition was poor.
At a meeting with principals and representatives of 65 schools from Pimpri-Chinchwad on Saturday, the PCMC urged schools to reduce fee by 15 per cent. “We have received complaints from people about schools demanding fees from children or not allowing them to sit for online classes. Besides, schools are also rejecting admissions to poor students under the RTE (Right To Education) Act. Every day, we get 10 to 15 complaints. Despite issuing notices, schools are not responding,” he said.
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Patil said, “Under the RTE Act too, schools will get reimbursement from the government. But because there is a delay, it doesn’t mean children should be denied admission.”
Jagruti Dharmadhikari, representative of Independent English Schools Association present at the meeting, said, “The municipal commissioner has sought 15 per cent fee cut for all admissions. However, we are ready to give more than 15 per cent cut to students who are from poor families or whose families have been adversely hit by the pandemic and lockdown. But we cannot give 15 per cent cut to all students.”
Jyotsna Shinde, PCMC administrative officer (education), said, “After the commissioner’s appeal, many schools have said they will reduce their fee by 15 per cent. It is also true that schools said they will give fee cut to poor children.”
Dominic Lobo, who closed his school in Sangvi a couple of years ago, said, “Several schools are facing issues in running schools as the state government has failed to reimburse them under the RTE Act.”
He said schools had to pay salaries, which they could not as the government was refusing to pay pending dues. “Don’t blame all the schools, catch the wrong ones and seal them,” he added.
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Lobo said education was the primary responsibility of a local body like the PCMC. “Hence, the commissioner should use emergency powers and issue cheques to all schools towards RTE dues. Schools can pay the PCMC back, as and when the state pays them.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
