Coimbatore: Some college managements are said to be putting pressure on the students to pay the yearly tuition fees by threatening to take them out of online classes and not to allow them to attend semester examinations.A third-year architect student of a private college in the city told TOI that the college management had been asking him to pay the tuition fees, which is close to Rs 85,000 a year, immediately.
The management has warned not to allow him to attend the online classes and take up the semester examination, if he didn’t pay the fees without any delay.The student, who didn’t want to be identified, said he had sought additional time to pay the fee, as his father, who is a mason, was out of job because of the complete lockdown.
He said they were struggling to meet the daily expenses.“Our financial situation has been worse, since the pandemic began.
Last year itself, we had struggled a lot to arrange the college fees.
This year, we cannot afford such a lump amount.
I have been requesting the college management to give me additional time to pay the fees.
But they are putting pressure on me to pay the fees immediately.
Had it been a normal time, my father would have paid the fees somehow.
But in this pandemic situation, it is just out of question.
Now, I don’t know what to do,” the student said.This is not a lone case.
Many educational institutions, including the reputed ones, in the district have been coercing the students to pay the fees immediately, by threatening to stop them from taking the semester examinations or attending online classes, said M Dinesh Raja, secretary, Student Federation of India.
He had taken up the issue with the district administration recently.“Bullying the students to pay the full fees immediately during the pandemic situation is completely unfair.
Many of their parents have lost jobs and are struggling to manage their daily expenses.
How will they be able to arrange such a huge sum? The government should intervene and get some additional time for the students to pay the fees.
Also, a committee should be formed to ensure that the colleges are collecting only the fees fixed by the government,” he said.
When contacted the office of the regional joint director of collegiate education, an official said they had not received any such complaints from the district so far.
“It is a common practice among the colleges to collect the pending fees before the examination,” the official said.