Parents approach CMs cell over fee structure

CHENNAI: A day after Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa issued a statement that if aggrieved stakeholders, parents or teachers, approach her on the fee structure for students, the government will intervene, parents of students in 17 private matriculation schools here on Thursday knocked on the doors of the CM’s Special Cell at Fort St George. They demanded that the fee structure fixed by the Justice Govindarajan panel for schools in the state be implemented and refunding of the excess fees collected by the schools for the last and the current academic years. The CM had stated that the parents need not stage protests and instead they can approach the CM’s cell directly. S Arumainathan, state president, Federation of Parents and Students Welfare Association, said that since Jayalalithaa had made a statement, the parents thought it is the right opportunity to approach her with their long-pending demands. He said:  “The main demand was that the government should implement the fee structure prescribed by the Govindarajan panel for all schools. Presently, none of the schools are following the fee structure. We request the AIADMK government to implement it. Secondly, it has to be made clear that the much-awaited report of Justice Ravirajapandian is only for the 6,400 schools which had appealed in the Court for reconsidering their fee. The rest of the schools have to follow the fee structure.