Govt should ensure no child drops out due to inability to pay fees: Guj HC

The state government shouldensure that parents are not compelled to withdraw childrenfrom schools due to the inability to pay the fees, the GujaratHigh Court has said.

The government should pay attention especially incases where parents find it difficult to provide education tothe children due the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, itsaid in an order passed last month.

''Education is something which should never becompromised,'' the judges said in the order passed on January 8and made availableon the HC website on Tuesday.

A division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath andJustice J B Pardiwala had taken up a public interestlitigation `suo motu' (on its own) based on a survey by theIndian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad and UNICEF Gujarat.

The survey highlighted the hardship faced by manyhouseholds during lockdown, more particularly due to the non-availability of mid-day-meals at government schools.

''Before closing this litigation, we may remind thestate government to ensure one thing that the inability to paythe fees should not compel the parents to stop providingeducation to their children,'' the bench said.

''It is possible that the help rendered by thegovernment might not have reached a few families. This is whatthe survey talks about. The government should pay dueattention to such genuine cases and try to render assistancein all possible manner,'' the court said.

The survey was conducted among 375 low-income parentsfrom Ahmedabad city between July to September 2020. Nearly 31per cent of them had children attending government schools.

It showed that 85 per cent of the parents of childrenattending government primary schools could not get any otherhelp when schools closed and mid-day meals stopped.

Despite the government asking schools to give reliefin fee payment, 54 per cent parents said they were asked byprivate schools to pay fees during lockdown, and over 40 percent parents were totally unaware of the fee relief order.

Among those asked to pay the fees, more than 50 percent admitted that it was difficult for them to arrange themoney.

Less than two per cent had access to laptop and Wi-Ficonnection even as schools started conducting classes online.

But the state government in its response said thesample size was too small and did not present a correctpicture. The government provided food security allowance inlieu of mid-day meals, it said.