The All Manipur Students Union (AMSU) on Tuesday reiterated its demand to revoke the government order allowing private schools to collect 30% of the monthly fees from the students from April this year.
At a press conference, AMSU’s Human Resource Development secretary Bruce Pebam said that the union has taken clear stand that private schools should not collect the monthly fees from the students because each and every sector struggled very hard during the lockdown which was imposed late March to prevent the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
On October 5, the state education department in an order directed all private schools and government-aided schools to collect 30% of the monthly fees from the students starting from April 2020. It also directed that teachers and staff of the schools be paid 50% of their salaries.
Alleging that issuance of such an order to collect school fees from students’ of private schools for the lockdown period is illogical, Pebam said, “We have made our stand very firm that during this lockdown period, the salary of private schools teachers should be managed by the school committee and government.”
He also claimed that earlier the government had asked the private schools to submit the detailed fee structures. “But so far 50% of private schools have failed to do so.” The AMSU claims there are 1,200 private schools in the state.
“We want the Manipur government to accept the conditions put forward by the AMSU in the interest of the public and students community in particular,” he said. “We also want private school teachers who are always deprived of their rights to come out and demand their genuine rights from the school authorities.”
On the report of collecting monthly fees by some private schools, the AMSU leader appealed to them not to collect the fees until an amicable solution is found about the issue involving all stakeholders.