Mumbai: Versova school waives Rs 1.8 crore fees for 3,000 students

Ajay Kaul, principal, at Children Welfare Centre School on Tuesday. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

A Versova school is under tremendous financial pressure but has not stopped paying its staff. The administration has now gone a step ahead and offered help to the parents of its 3,000 students who are struggling with either inconsistent income or are facing difficulties after losing their jobs during the COVID-19 lockdown. It has waived three months' fees for all.

The 40-year-old Children Welfare Centre (CWC) High School at Yari Road has offered a waiver of three months' fees, amounting to Rs 1.8 crore. When it opened, the school catered to Versova Village's fisherfolk community, but over time children of the economically weaker section from the neighbourhood enrolled as well.

Ajay Kaul

The school charges Rs 2,000 per month as fees of students of UKG till Junior College. However, since the lockdown was imposed in March, most parents have been struggling to pay even one month's fee.

Some have lost jobs

Ajay Jawahar Kaul, who has been the principal of CWC high school since 1981, said, "Parents have been finding it very difficult to pay the fees as they have suffered financial setbacks during the lockdown. While some have lost jobs, some don't have a constant income and others have not been receiving their salaries on time. Most of the parents send their two or three children here."

The school administration took the decision to offer reprieve despite the current cost they are bearing in addition to the outstanding fees.

Only 30% managed to pay

"Not even 30 per cent of the parents were able to pay the fees. But we were still paying the electricity bill of the school, investing more in training our teachers for digital teaching and procuring equipment like dongles for them. We will also take care of the teachers' electricity costs. We also have the school staff and bus drivers and conductors to look after. Even though they have not worked, they still need their monthly salaries," Kaul said.

When asked how the school managed to waive off Rs 1.8 crore at one go despite being under strain itself, he said, "There was no other alternative. We had dues pending from March till November. We told parents to at least clear three-four months' fees initially, but they were struggling. If we hadn't offered waiver, the backlog of dues would have increased exponentially by the end of this academic year. Now, if parents pay a few months' fees then we would be able to bear the basic expenses."
The decision has come as major relief to many parents. Siraj Hiadate, 54, whose son Rameez studies in Std X at CWC, said, "We paid the fees regularly, without fail. But after the lockdown, I was also struggling as my income stopped coming."

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Hiadate, who worked at a garment store, said they were living off small savings. "The best part is that even after not being able to pay fees for almost five months, the school never pressured us or called us for the payment. The waiver has reduced the burden on me drastically."

Kavita Belchada, whose two children, Ashish and Pritharth, study at CWC in Std XII and Std VI respectively, said, "We have been struggling financially ever since the lockdown was imposed. Now, Ajay Sir's decision to waive off three months' fees has given us massive relief and made us extremely happy." "Waiving off three months' fees isn't a small thing, that too for 3,000 students," said Belchada, whose husband is a small-time businessman.

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