State to amend law, curb exorbitant fee hikes by pvt schools

School edu dept probing complaints about exorbitant fee hikes, committee formed to recommend changes in law: Dada Bhuse

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Wednesday said it will modify the law regulating school fees in light of a volley of complaints regarding exorbitant charges levied by private schools in the state. A committee has been appointed to look into the matter and the Maharashtra Education Institutions (Regulation of Fee) Act, 2011 will be amended based on its recommendations, state school education minister Dada Bhuse told the legislative assembly.

Dada Bhuse (Hindustan Times)

Bhuse was responding to complaints about excessive fee hikes in schools, raised by Shiv Sena legislator Varun Sardesai and BJP legislator Yogesh Sagar.

The Maharashtra Education Institutions (Regulation of Fee) Act – applicable to all schools in the state – has provisions for fee hike up to 15% every two years, said Sardesai. But schools hike their fees beyond the limit and complaints about such hikes do not reach the divisional fee regulatory committee because it is difficult for parents of 25% students to come together and sign a petition, he said.

Sagar demanded that consent of 50% parents be made mandatory for implementing any fee hike.

In response, the school education minister said the department was probing complaints about exorbitant fee hikes and it had constituted a committee of experts to recommend changes in the law.

“Imparting education is a noble profession and not a way to mint money. It is wrong to do so and we are going to stop it,” Bhuse said, admitting that private schools levied various charges to earn more money. The government would factor in these charges – levied in the name of development, infrastructure, picnic, among others – in the revised law, which will restrict schools from charging exorbitant fees, he said. The government would also scrap the provision that necessitates complaints by a minimum of 25% parents for action against fee hikes, he added.

There are more than 16,000 self-financed schools across the state, most of them in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

The government is also in the process of enacting a law to regulate the functioning of private coaching classes, Bhuse told the assembly while replying to complaints from legislators about private colleges aligning with private coaching classes. Colleges were using the services of private coaching classes for holding sessions for students, the legislators had complained.