Schools, parents to be brought on board for talks on fee reduction: Karnataka minister

Bengaluru, 24 Feb 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: All school organisations and parent organisations will be brought on board to discuss the fee reduction and arrive at a middle path, said Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Suresh Kumar on Tuesday.

He was talking to protesting private schools teachers, staff and management gathered at Freedom Park on Tuesday. This comes after the government's decision to cut tuition fees by 30 percent for all schools and disallow them from collecting other fees.

The minister who visited the protesters to accept their memorandum assured he would take a look at all their demands, which include a Rs 1,000 crore allocation to schools for an interest-free loan.

Kumar said that various attempts were made to provide a financial package to teachers and non-teaching staff and he spoke to the finance department and government workers association, but they all failed.

He said the labour minister was approached for food kits, but even that did not work out. "However, I will try to find a way to help teachers and non-teaching staff of private schools," he assured.

As for classes one to five reopening, he said he is making efforts to start the classes and is in talks with the health department.

To deal with accusations about BEO DDPI offices being hubs of corruption, he said a 'File Disposal Movement' will be initiated from March 1 to ensure that files are not pending for more than a day without a legitimate reason.