Bengaluru, March 2021: Private school teachers in the Bengaluru Urban district have been instructed by their managements to halt teaching at 50% of the syllabus to show their displeasure at the government’s order to slash tuition fees by 50%.
On January 30th, the Karnataka government came out with an order to slash all private school tuition fees by 30%, in order to ease the burden on pandemic-affected parents. While parents were relieved, school managements were irked.
Schools have claimed that this fee cut will render them unable to pay their teachers. Parents are unanimous in their dismissal of this argument. They claim that the schools have already fired many teachers and cut the salaries of the rest severely, citing the pandemic.
On February 23rd, after no rollback of the fee slash order, Karnataka Private School Managements, Teaching, and Non-Teaching Staff Coordination Committee (KPMTCC)^, representing all the private schools protested by taking out a march from the Central Railway Station to Freedom Park. Over 25,000, wiling and unwilling, teaching and non-teaching staff participated in the protest.
“It is difficult for school managements to sustain the operations of the school, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, if fees are slashed,” said Bangalore International Public School Trustee, Mr. K D Fiddler. “The objective of the protest is the financial distress of private education institutions and their managements. I might have to liquidise some offshore investments to pay for the new Lamborghini Sian if parents don’t pay all of the school fees.”
Vexed by the pettiness of school managements, the Karnataka government has doubled down on their decision. On March 3rd, the government announced that schools wouldn’t be allowed to collect more than 50% of the tuition fees, to the jubilation of all parents.
Yesterday, in this latest exchange between private educational institutions and the government, KPMTCC has instructed all school managements to ensure that their school teachers only teach 50% of the syllabus to the students.
At same time, the Karnataka Private Schools’ Parents’ Associations’ Coordination Committee (KPSPACC)^ have called this a spiteful move on the part of the schools and have demanded the government to stop them. The KPSPACC warns that failure to stop the move would result in protest marches in the city and a possible Karnataka Bandh next week.
^Both these committees are real. Google them.