Chennai: In a shocking move, Srimathi Sundaravalli Memorial (SSM) School in Chennai has asked parents to pay Rs 2 lakh as caution deposit ‘for running the school with same comfort and facilities’ and to provide ‘quality education’. The parents from two branches of the school- one in Chromepet and another in Perungalathur- protested on Friday and demanded the school to withdraw the circular.
The circular also asked the parents who cannot pay the amount to communicate with the school before July 31. Stating that the information is must to plan for the academic year 2018-19, the school said for those who want to leave, the Transfer Certificate (TC) will be issued at the end of the academic year.
It asked the parents to pay the increased caution deposit along with the first term fee in April 2019.
One of the protesting parents said, “My kids are studying in the same school and we have paid Rs 20,000 each as caution deposit. Now we need to pay over Rs 3.5 lakh as caution deposit if we wanted to continue them in the same school for the next year. For a middle-class family, we cannot pay such an exorbitant amount.”
It is not the first time that the school has demanded money from the parents. “They already made an offer to reserve medical seats in the proposed medical college with Rs 5 lakh. But, many of us did not respond,” another parent claimed.
A majority of the parents in and around Tambaram are sending their kids to these two branches which have some good facilities. “If we are asked to get transfer certificates for our children where will get admissions?” another parent wondered.
The school is affiliated to CBSE board, but the board officials have offered little help to parents in this issue. Despite the intervention of Chief Educational Officer Angelo Irudhayasamy and Tambaram MLA S.R. Raja, the school management had refused to withdraw the circular.
“The Chief Educational Officer told us that the government will look into the issue and asked us not to worry about the caution deposit. After his assurance, many parents dispersed from the school,” a parent said.
