Let govt pay staff salaries: School in HC

Let govt pay staff salaries: School in HC

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  05.07.2020

Since Tamil Nadu government has barred private schools from demanding and collecting fee from parents, it is duty-bound to compensate the monetary burden of these educational institutions, a school has said in the Madras high court.

The city school — St Francis Xavier’s Matriculation School — seeking a direction to the government to release the salary to staff as part of the extraordinary disaster relief, linked it to the fundamental duty of the government to provide compulsory education to children from 6 to 14 years.

Admitting the plea moved by the school, Justice R Mahadevan has directed the government to file its response by July 8.

The petitioner-school, managed by Regular Tertiary Franciscans Sisters of Our Lady of Bon Secours-Society, said fees paid by students is to meet the salary and allowances for teaching and non-teaching staff, administration and curricular activities, maintenance of the infrastructure, besides statutory payments like EPF, ESI, property tax, water charges, etc.

Apart from that, students have to pay for books/ notebooks, uniforms, other personal implements and material and optional co-curricular and extra curricular activities for effective education. All these activities, curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular, form part of a healthy, holistic and integral education, the petitioner said.

While so, the petitioner was totally surprised by the sudden jolt in the financial administration of the school, due to GO prohibiting collection of fees. Initially, the petitioner was under the impression that it will be only for a short-period. Therefore, it mobilized all its resources to manage the payment towards the salary of the staff, for the months of April, May and June. As of now, the petitioner is financially exhausted with its limited resources, it added.

“On the one hand, the state has blocked all the financial resources for schools and on the other hand it is directing the school to continue to pay,” the petitioner said.

On the one hand, the state has blocked all the financial resources for schools and, on the other hand, it is directing the school to continue to pay

ST FRANCIS XAVIER’S

MATRICULATION SCHOOL

petitioner-school