Haryana govt does away with ‘no struck off name’ provision in schools

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 14

In a major move, the Haryana government has done away with the provision of not allowing schools to strike-off students’ name falling to non-payment of fees.

In an order issued on June 1 (as per point 9), the department stated: “…as per the directions issued on April 23 and May 22 for the compliance, private schools will not strike off the name of any student due to non-payment of fee…”

However, on June 9, the department said: “In a partial modification, reference made at serial number 9 (above mentioned) of the order dated on June 1 may be read as ‘deleted’.” 

Interestingly, on the orders dated May 22, there was no mention of any ninth point, as the orders were of only eight pointers and there was no mention if the schools can strike off names or not.

Additional Chief Secretary, when contacted, said the orders of May 22 stood valid.

“The orders of May 22 stand valid and very clear. The focus point is that the May 22 order is to comply. There was some confusion as the department had issued two orders (April 23 and May 22), however, it was made clear that the effective order is of May 22,” said Dr Mahavir Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, who undersigned the orders.

When asked on the clarity over if the schools had been given the authority to strike off names or not, Singh said: “I don’t want to get into further discussion, the people have already moved to court. The orders (dated May 22) are very clear.”

Meanwhile, as per May 22, students have been asked to pay the tuition fee from June onwards and for the month of April and May, and if any parent requested the school to give relaxations, the request should be accepted. In that case, the pending amount should be paid in instalments within the coming three months.

“We welcome the decision as there have been many incidents wherein those parents who can pay the fee were not doing so deliberately. The schools are already helping the genuine cases by not asking them any kind of fee in this pandemic, but those who can easily pay a reasonable amount should not make excuses. This has brought in discrimination and anger among parents,” said Piyush Punj, finance secretary, Panchkula Public School Association.

“The school must have given the authority to keep on it. We ensure that no genuine parent will be affected by this order,” he added.