Bhubaneswar, Aug. 6: DAV Public Schools in the twin cities have asked students to pay a consolidated amount of Rs 4,000 by August 10 towards re-admission charges and tuition fees for the last four months.

Authorities said they were “under serious financial pressure” as there had been no fee collection in the schools since the new academic session began in April with the fee hike issue pending in the Supreme Court. Officials of a DAV Public School in the capital city said their monthly expenses came to around Rs 60 lakh, which mostly covered salaries of staff.

“For the last four months, we have been somehow managing through loans and diversion of funds. But the situation started worsening in mid-July. We were expecting the court to take a final decision about the fee hike on July 26, but now it has been postponed for an indefinite period. So, we were forced to issue the notice,” said an official.

The notice issued last week reads: “…Perceptible time has elapsed in the current academic year; in order to reduce the accumulated financial burden on the parents, school has decided to collect lump sum amount from all students towards school fee which will be adjusted against the fees to be paid to the school for your ward after decision of the honourable Supreme Court.”

A section of parents have opposed the circular, alleging that Rs 4,000 was too high an amount. “It comes to Rs 1,000 per month, which is almost as much as the proposed hike rates. The school has no right to send us this notice when the court’s judgment is still awaited,” said a parent, who did not wish to be named.

However, school authorities said it was a reasonable amount considering that it also included readmission charges. “Parents are objecting because it is a lump sum amount. They must understand that Rs 4,000 for four months is less compared to what we were collecting in 2009,” said a teacher of DAV-Chandrasekharpur here.

A stalemate between the school management and parents over fee hike has been continuing since 2009-10 after the former increased tuition fees on the plea of implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission for teaching and non-teaching staff. Orissa High Court has struck down the hike on two occasions and the matter is now pending before the apex court.