Parents in Ludhiana ask playway schools to refund fees

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 4

Parents of students studying in playway schools have asked school authorities to refund the fee as there are no clear guidelines from the state government on when the schools will be opened.

School authorities maintain that in January and February, when the Covid-19 situation was improving, they had hired the permanent staff again to whom regular salaries were to be paid. The authorities say it was not possible for the schools to return the fee as schools had to pay salaries to the staff and other overhead expenses.

A woman, who is running a playway school in city, said parents felt safe to send their kids to schools after about nine months and the admission ratio declined drastically as many parents were still reluctant to send their kids to school.

“We took the admission fees and the staff was hired again. We had no fault in the closure of schools again. This has happened all over Punjab. Now parents are approaching us to return the fee. How can we do that? We have started paying regular salaries to the staff and other workers. We have given the parents the option of online classes as well,” she said.

A parent said she got her ward admitted in a playway school paid three-month fee in January. “Uncertainty prevails whether schools are going to open or not. Schools will declare summer break in the month of June. Hence, it does not feel valid to pay fee all these months when the kids are not even going to schools.”