The government on Wednesday asked schools and colleges not to charge fees other than the tuition fees during the closure of educational institutions amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

It also asked government and non-government schools and colleges to refund the library fees, magazine fees, tiffin fees, laboratory fees and development fees that they had charged during admission or readmission which remained unused due to the suspension of regular classroom activities from March.

A circular issued by the directorate of secondary and  higher education also asked the institutions to waiver tuition fees for students from poor and low-income families.

It further asked the schools not to take readmission fees, tiffin fees, library fees, laboratory fees in the next academic year if the COVID-19 situation continues after December.

The circular, signed by director general of DSHE Syed Golam Faruk, said that the institutions would be able to charge all logical fees when normal classes resume.

All students excepting those from financially distressed families would have to pay their tuition fees from March to December when regular classes remained suspended but online classes continued, the circular reads.

Syed Golam Faruk told New Age that the circular would be applicable for all educational institutions except for government primary schools and English medium schools which follow foreign curriculums.

‘We will issue separate instructions for English Medium Schools as the High Court division had already passed a rule asking English medium schools not to prevent students from accessing classes due to nonpayment of tuition fees,’ Faruk said.

He said that the circular was issued to protect the interests of both the patents and the institutions as the COVID-19 outbreak had left an adverse effect on both.

The parents and the school authorities, who had been at loggerheads on the issue of paying tuition fees since academic institutions of the country remained closed from March, however, did not welcome the Wednesday circular.

Many parents said that the circular would help schools forcibly take tuition fees from all students while school authorities said that the circular would help parents to dodge tuition fees arguing that they were going through financial crises, which might result in the complete shutdown of many non-government and kindergarten schools.

‘The circular is nothing but an attempt to gain cheap popularity as some schools normally allow tuition waiver to children from poor families,’ said Ziaul Kabir Dulu, president of Abhibhabak Oikya Forum, a platform of parents of non-government schools.

‘We demanded a declaration of announcing cent per cent waiver for all students,’ Dulu said and added, ‘The order will not be implemented as the government has no control over the non-government schools and kindergartens.’

They do not have any idea about the income and expenditures of the schools as, flouting the rules, these schools do not submit their audit reports, Dulu said.

Ideal School and College principal Shahan Ara Begum said that the school had already spent all the fees that they charged from the students during their admissions or readmissions and therefore no question arises regarding readjustment.

She denied making any comment whether the school would charge library fees, laboratory fees and other student activities fees in the next academic year if the COVID-19 outbreak continues.

Bangladesh Kindergarten School and College Oikya Parishad president Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury said that many schools would shut down as all the parents would misinterpret the instructions and would deny paying tuition fees.

‘The government should either open the schools or extend its support to us by giving loans so that we can survive during the outbreak,’ he said.

DSHE DG Golam Faruk requested both the groups to behave sensibly. ‘We will definitely intervene if we receive complaints,’ Faruk said.