After receiving several complaints from parents, Suresh Kumar S, Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Government of Karnataka, announced that none of the private schools must force parents to pay school or admission fees to promote their children to the next academic year (2020-2021).
Through a Facebook live video, he said, "The management of various private schools must understand that several people are unemployed now and have not received their salaries on time. One must show humanity in these difficult times that we all are going through. Therefore, the Education Department has brought a resolution that the private schools must not force the parents to pay fees within a particular date."
He added, "The state government has all rights to cancel the license of the schools that violate this order and penalise the management under the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897. We will not step back from taking such strict actions against schools."
Kumar also said that schools must not begin the admission process for the next batch. "No schools must begin the admission process until April 14. The state government will announce the new dates after reviewing the situation in the future."
Apart from this, Kumar had announced the extension of holidays for teachers until April 14, owing to the 21-day lockdown. Earlier, this was only until March 31. However, the teachers are asked to make themselves available for work whenever a situation of emergency occurs.
