Govt resolves to regulate fees, schools say education will suffer

The Uttarakhand government has announced its resolve to regulate fees of public schools, eliciting sharp response from schools which warned of education taking a hit.

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government has announced its resolve to regulate fees of public schools, eliciting sharp response from schools which warned of education taking a hit.

The previous Congress government had worked to formulate the draft of the Fees Control and Disposal of Complaints Bill to regulate fee structure of private schools but the Bill was not cleared during its tenure.(HT Photo)

Education minister Arvind Pandey said the government is committed to ease out pressure on the people by fixing a cap on school fee. “We will work to bring a framework under which public schools will not be able to charge more than Rs 15,000 annually up to class 5, Rs 25,000 from class 6 to 8 and Rs 30,000 from class 9 to 12,” he said on Tuesday.

The ceiling will be introduced from the next academic session, Pandey said, adding that the public schools will also not be allowed to change syllabus for at least five years.

He said as the process of clearing the act will take some time, officials should take up fee complaints on a priority basis.

Many schools have hiked fees for the current academic session by 25-30% or even more in some cases, associations representing parents allege. The previous Congress government had worked to formulate the draft of the Fees Control and Disposal of Complaints Bill to regulate fee structure of private schools but the Bill was not cleared during its tenure.

School representatives, however, said the decision, if implemented, would not only impact the quality of education but would also force many educational institutions to shut down. “The types of facilities we provide, the quantum of salaries we pay for hiring highly qualified teachers and expenditure made on maintenance of infrastructure make it necessary for us to hike fee,” Principals’ Progressive School Association state president Prem Kashyap told HT.

He said the public schools were willing to cooperate with the government, but it shouldn’t happen at the cost of hampering the quality of education..

But parents lashed out at the government for failing to provide an urgent solution to the problem. “Public schools are looting parents in the name of quality education. If it (government) is actually serious about the issue, then immediate action should be taken to provide relief to hapless parents,” All Uttarakhand Parents’ Association president Neeraj Singhal said.