The Tamil Nadu government has issued an order on Monday in which it has directed all the private schools and colleges not to force the students and parents to clear the tuition fees for the upcoming academic year of 2020-21 as the state has been brought under the complete lockdown that had shut down all the establishments owing to the Coronavirus outbreak that had put the people indoors. 

According to the reports, Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary K Shanmugam has issued the orders on Monday. The orders have been passed to the private schools and colleges in which the government instructed the institutions should neither force the students and parents to pay the fees for the academic year 2020-21 nor should they be compelled to clear the dues during the lockdown period.

The fresh direction has been passed under the Disaster Management Act and it also stated that the institutions should not impose students with penalties for causing the delay for clearing the dues during the lockdown. 

The reports stated that the government has issued the order based on what has been reported. The order has come after the government has got the attention that some of the private schools and colleges are demanding the tuition fee from the parents amid the statewide restrictions. 

On Monday, the state government has decided to keep the complete lockdown in place till May 3rd with providing no relaxations to the restrictions as the state has been reeling to stem the spread of the virus with having 28 districts out of 37 as the hotspots for the spread. However, with the view of relaxing the burden endured by the people, the government has been providing relief materials and financial aid to all the ration cardholders across the state. 

Earlier, the government has directed the establishments not to carry out pay cuts to the employees and it also has ordered the landlords defer collecting the rent from the tenants. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has issued a warning to the schools that the action would be taken against the institutions which are found to be forcing the students to pay their fees. As of Monday evening, the state reported 1,520 positive cases of which 1,043 are active patients, 457 have been discharged while 17, included the latest two fatalities, had died of Coronavirus.