The Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) came out in opposition against the state government's move to collect fees for the State Student Sports Fund for this academic year, especially since no extra-curricular activities are possible this year anyway owing to the ongoing pandemic.
The Associate Director of Physical Education, under the office of the Commissioner, Public Instruction, released a circular on December 13 stating that all private, government-aided and government schools are required to collect the fee from those students who are studying in Class VI and upwards. While students from Classes VI and VII need to pay Rs 4, those studying in Classes VIII to X need to shell out Rs 5, as per a report in The Times of India.
From the amount, Rs 2 and Rs 5 respectively will need to be deposited by Deputy Directors of Public Instruction to the SSS Fund. These directors have also been asked to submit data for the year 2019-2020.
"The money is used by the department to organise district and state-level sports events. This is daylight loot. It is ironic that the state has barred private schools from collecting additional fees for sports or extracurricular activities, but it is asking students to pay an additional amount," shared D Shashi Kumar, General Secretary, KAMS.
"For the past 25 years, we have been collecting Rs 5 per child for a corpus Kreedha Nidhi. When schools reopened, we wanted children to be active. So, we saved Rs 2.5 crore in Prathibha Karanji funds and Rs 2.5 crore from available Kreedha Nidhi and gave Rs one lakh per high school and Rs 50,000 per primary school for sports activities. They are using this sum to buy sports equipment. Is this wrong? Is it difficult for a child to pay Rs 5?" asked Vishal R, Commissioner, DPI (Department of Public Instruction).
