Rebuffing the myth over parents' displeasure towards the schools on payment of fees, Ahmedabad based Association of Progressive Schools (AoPS) stormed the Twitter with their #SaveOurSchools campaign.
The digital campaign was designed to oppose Gujarat government's order to collect no fees from the parents till the schools open regularly. On Sunday, July 26, the campaign received tremendous support from Twitterati as the online campaign witnessed more than one lakh tweets, became number four trending nationally, number five in Mumbai/Bengaluru and number one in Gujarat Twitter.
The aim of the campaign was to create a massive voice for the concern towards school education and influence the state government to take a favorable decision that is suitable to all the sections of the education fraternity.
"We had received tremendous support from parents and other sections of the society backing the various initiatives taken by the self-financed schools for the betterment of students' education during COVID-19 pandemic. A large number of parents had shown their disagreement towards the government's GR on not to levy fees till normal classes resume. Buoyed by their support, we had launched a digital campaign #SaveOurSchools to further echo our voice and get further support nationally. This coming together for the sake of the education fraternity in Gujarat was an important step to stop what was shortsighted and will have deep consequences for everyone," said Manan Choksi, Past President and Member of AoPS, while speaking on this initiative.
"In 2017, a Fee Regulatory Committee (FRC) was set up by Gujarat government to regulate fee structure of schools in Gujarat. Despite submitting the genuine expenses approved by the auditors, the FRC drastically reduced the fees charged by private schools. Just like every other sector, the private schools also faced a big hit due to COVID-19 pandemic and it's after effects. Last week the state government had restricted all the schools not to collect fees from the parents till the schools resume normally. In such a situation, how the schools will pay the salaries of teaching staff? Such a decision is completely hogwash and our digital campaign proved that by getting support from the education fraternity," added Choksi.
The association had invited all the educators, teachers, parents, and students to come forward and join in the Tweet Storm. AoPS also arranged a short training session on Saturday, 25th July to understand how it works and what the participants can write about the campaign.
This was especially planned for the people who had not optimized the use of Twitter previously as the session could help them to understand the focus, the strategy, and the use of their Twitter account.
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( With inputs from ANI )