Criticizes Govt decision to levy fees from private schools students
Date - 7th October, 2020

NEFIS CRITICIZES MANIPUR GOVERNMENT’S DECISION TO LEVY FEES FROM STUDENTS STUDYING IN PRIVATE AND AIDED SCHOOLS!
DEMANDS THAT ORDER OF DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION (SCHOOLS) BE IMMEDIATELY WITHDRAWN AND NO FEES SHOULD BE COLLECTED FROM STUDENTS!!
ALSO DEMANDS THAT TEACHERS’ SALARIES SHOULD BE PAID IN FULL!!

North-East Forum for International Solidarity (NEFIS) strongly criticizes Manipur government’s recent directive to levy fee from the students studying in state government run schools. The Department of Education (Schools) in an order dated 5th October, 2020 has directed that all the private and aided schools in the state would levy 30% of monthly payable fees from the parents of the students enrolled. Moreover, it also directs that only 50% of the salary would be paid to the teachers employed in these schools.

The order is completely apathetic to the dire situation in which the mass of students and their families have been thrown during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. The loss of jobs has led to untold suffering of families in the state.

Such an order only serves to accentuate the suffering of the students and their families who are already hard-pressed enough. Moreover, the private schools in the state operate on a huge corpus of funds accumulated over the years. In the extraordinary situation of the pandemic, it is imperative that fees should not be levied especially when parents are already hard-pressed.

The order also openly grants license to the private schools to exploit the teachers employed there. It should be noted that teachers in private schools are often over-exploited and made to teach at a pittance.

The order would enable the private schools to further exploit the teachers by paying them half the amount of their salaries, while they continue to sit on huge corpus of funds generated over the years.

The issue of fees in private colleges across the state is also worrying as these colleges had collected huge amounts as fees for the last academic year before the lockdown.

Subsequent to the lockdown, studies have been disrupted leading to almost nil academic activity, while the fees of the academic session had already been paid. In such a situation, the fees of the students for the current academic year should be adjusted from the amount already paid for the last academic year.

Regarding the grave issues mentioned above, NEFIS demands that the order of the Department of Education (Schools) should be immediately withdrawn, and no fees should be collected from the students. Moreover, the teachers employed in private schools should be paid full salaries. NEFIS would be organizing students and parents in the coming days, and would intensify its movement for accessible, equal and quality education for all.

Thokchom Yaiphalembi Chanu
Member
North-East Forum for International Solidarity (NEFIS)