lucknow the up government on thursday directed all schools irrespective of the boards they are affiliated to not to hike the fees for the academic session 202122 in the interest of the students and parents following the covid19 outbreak in case of noncompliance by schools parentswards can lodge complaints before the district fee regulatory committee a government order issued by an additional chief secretary secondary education aradhana shukla said if any school has charged hiked fee for the new session the additional amount will be adjusted in the coming months the fee applicable for academic sessions 202122 will be the same as followed by schools for the academic session 201920deputy chief minister dinesh sharma who heads the secondary education in the state said many are grappling with reduced earnings due to the covidinduced lockdown this is the governments small effort in providing relief to parents who suffered pay cuts or had low business turnover due to the pandemic shutdown and are facing issues in paying the school fees sharma saidthe order directed schools to allow monthly payments to parents who fail to submit the quarterly fees at once since schools have been closed for a longer duration and examinations are not held in person the school is forbidden to take levy fees charged for purposes such as examination sports science library computer and annual function in addition schools are also barred to charge transport fees from the parentsschools have been asked to consider cases where parents fail to pay fee for a specific month after they or their ward get contracted to covid in such cases schools must seek written requests from parents and that the unpaid fee is adjusted through installments in the next months also schools must ensure that they release salaries to their teaching and nonteaching staff regularly the district inspector of schools dios should ensure strict compliance said the government