Agitating parents submit memo to Collector, DEO

SURAT, June 29:Students and parents of schools run by the Madresa Tayebiyah Society, after taking out a rally against fee hikes in schools r...

SURAT, June 29:Students and parents of schools run by the Madresa Tayebiyah Society, after taking out a rally against fee hikes in schools run by the society, submitted separate memoranda to the collector and the district education officer DEO on Monday. They urged them to stop, what they termed as, 8220;daylight looting of parents8221; by hiking the fees by an additional amount of Rs 30 per month.

The schools were charging Rs 185 and 195 per month for students 8212; of class one to seven 8212; studying in the Gujarati and English mediums respectively, before the society increased its monthly fees.

Parents, who were for the past ten days protesting peacefully for the scrapping of the fee hike, told the DEO that they had submitted a letter of protest to the school authorities on June 19, who in turn had asked them for a week8217;s time to consider the demand.

The parents added though they agreed to the proposal, keeping in mind the interests of the children, no action had been initiated by the school authorities. Instead, the school management locked the schools put up a notice stating that teaching had been suspended, they added.

Listing out their demands before the collector and the DEO, the agitating parents said that a fixed fee be levied at the rate of Rs 110 per month 8212; so that the management produce accounts in the DEO office periodically 8212; return all the extra fees that has been collected from the parents without obtaining the required permission from the DEO and scrap the donation system.

The DEO is reported to have assured the parents that he would check the accounts of the schools, which according to the parents had not been maintained for the past three years, where there have been consecutive fee hikes.

The parents submitted the memoranda with the backing of the Vaalimandal8217;, an organisation formed with the sole aim of protesting against fee hikes in schools.