Coimbatore admin sets up email for parents to send complaints on school fees

The Madras High Court, in July, had ordered that private unaided educational institutions shall ask parents to pay only 40% of annual fees in first instalment.

The School education department in Coimbatore district, on Thursday, announced a dedicated email address to which parents can send their complaints about private schools compelling them to pay fees which exceed the court-stipulated amount.

The Madras High Court, in an order, had directed that private schools in Tamil Nadu can collect only 40% of the annual school fees as the first instalment during the academic year 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a press statement, the Coimbatore district education office said that aggrieved parents of private school students who have been compelled to pay over 40% of the annual school fees as the first instalment can send their complaints to ceocbe1feescomplaint@gmail.com.

“The complaints sent to this email ID will be investigated in the appropriate manner,” the statement said in Tamil.

In July, the Madras High Court had permitted private, unaided schools and colleges in Tamil Nadu to collect 40% of the annual fees for the academic year 2020-21 by August 31. The order came as a huge relief for hundreds of private, unaided educational institutions in the state that were struggling to pay their monthly bills and teachers’ salaries. Apart from this, the court also permitted the educational institutions to collect the fee arrears pertaining to the previous academic year (2019-20) by September 30.

The state government had initially submitted in the court that the educational institutions can collect 75% of the annual fees this year due to delay in academic sessions, in three equal instalments. However, the court ordered that the first 40% be collected by August 31 and the remaining 35% be collected within two months from the date of reopening the educational institutions.

The Government of Tamil Nadu had, in April, prohibited private educational institutions from demanding or compelling parents to pay the fees for the current academic year owing to the COVID-19 lockdown. The state government had also prohibited the institutions from collecting the fee arrears from the previous years. A few private schools associations had moved the High Court against this government order.