An English medium private school in the coal hub of Dhanbad in Jharkhand set an example for other educational institutions by waiving off fees completely for nearly the Covid pandemic period of nearly two years.

The management of the New Angels Home School at Digwadih in Dhanbad, over 165km from capital Ranchi, on Tuesday announced that fees of all the over 500 students from nursery to Class V will be waived off for the period in which school was closed for Covid pandemic after the schools opened on Monday.

“The decision was taken after a lot of deliberation with staff (teaching and non-teaching) and other members. It is our duty to help the parents, mostly from lower-middle-class backgrounds affected by the pandemic. We jointly decided to go ahead with the fee waiver decision,” said Mohammed Shabbir Akhtar, chairperson cum-principal of the school.

Significantly, the school was established in 2005 and provides education from nursery till Class VIII while the fee waiver announcement is only between nursery and Class V.

“For students between Class VI and VIII we have announced 50 per cent waiver of fees for the entire period of the pandemic,” said Akhtar.

The school chairperson was candid when asked about challenges of salary to teachers and staff after the fees are waived.

“We have 32 teachings and four non-teaching staff and they have voluntarily agreed to take 50 per cent less salary as most of the parents are daily wagers working as casual labourers, vegetable vendors. We will manage with a bit of financial constraints and pool in our surplus resources but we had to do it so that other schools can take a cue from us,” said Akhtar.

School principal M S Akhtar (M) announcing the fee waiver at Dhanbad on Tuesday Shabbir Husain

The school has a nominal fee structure ranging between Rs 200 and Rs 300 and had already carved a niche in philanthropic activities by waiving 50 percent of fees for girl students since 2018 as part of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign of the Government of India.

The school had also arranged free notes and assignments for those students who do not have smartphones and cannot benefit from online classes.

“Though we have our own app for online classes but we also know that several parents cannot afford smartphones for their children and for such parents we had allowed free notes and completed assignments which was available in schools for free,” added Akhtar.

The Jharkhand Parents Association president Ajay Rai welcomed the decision.

“It is a noble gesture from a private school even as parents have been fighting legal battles against private schools for fee waiver during Covid pandemic,” said Rai.