TENSION is growing between parents and guardians of students and educational institutions over the payment of tuition fees. Guardians have started street agitations demanding a 50 per cent waiver for the ongoing online-based outreach education programmes while the school authorities want full payment for their existence. Many parents became jobless or were getting reduced salaries amid the Coronavirus crisis and it is really painful for them to pay full tuition fees for their wards, while online schooling is not well performed.
Parents demand for tuition fee waiver goes unheeded by the school authorities and the Education Ministry. The guardians also claimed that the online-based courses offered by the institutions were not up to the mark while the courses forced them to spend additional money on devices and expensive internet data packs for their children. Kindergarten owners and unpaid teachers in the past few days also formed human chains to demand government financial support for the salaries of the teachers and the rents of the schools. The owners of non-government schools, kindergartens, English-medium schools, and private universities also appealed for government aid to continue their operations.
Educationists asked the government to solve the crisis for the greater interest of the education of an estimated four crore students. The guardians, teachers, and school authorities all are in an enduring financial crisis in the prevailing economic situation and require financial support from the government. Some leading English and Bangla medium schools have huge bank deposits and can easily pay teachers’ salaries without new earnings. Meanwhile, some school authorities asked for a soft loan to resume imparting education, develop technological infrastructure, pay teachers salary, among others. The education sector is undergoing a financial crisis, like many other sectors. The prolonged economic sluggishness and upcoming recession will put a negative impact on the guardians’ financial condition and raise the risk of dropouts. The government, conglomerates, and affluent people must come up to keep the flame of light blazing.
