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No school fee hike this year, says Maharashtra education commissioner
State education commissioner meets parent associations of Pune and discuss various issues, including school fee
As per the government resolution of May 8, 2020, there will be no fee hike for the academic year 2021-2022, said education commissioner Vishal Solanki to officials of the department.
According to a letter issued on Monday by Dinkar Temkar, joint director, primary education, the education department officials are directed to check if schools who have raised their fee in 2021-2022 have done so as per the Fee Regulation Act of 2011 and 2016.
The letter was issued after representatives of various parent associations from the city met Solanki.
The letter also states that grievances redressal committee should be formed to address the issues faced by parents.
“Some schools have taken a ‘Letter of Guarantee’ from parents at the time of admission. If any parent complaints against this, appropriate action should be taken against the schools. As directed by the high court, non-payment of fee, partial payment of fee or delay in payment of fee are issues related to parents. In such scenarios, students should not suffer educational loss and schools cannot deny online education to these students. Schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act are also directed to submit their audit reports or else their fee reimbursement will not be done,” stated the letter.
In addition to this, schools who have hiked their fee for the academic year 2020-2021 without due permission from executive committee of parent teacher association (EPTA), officials are expected to take action suo moto for such schools.
On Monday, Cops Students Organisation, Parents Association of Pune and other related bodies met Solanki over fee hike by private schools and denial of online education to many students.
Amar Ekad, president, Cops Students Organisation, said that Solanki has directed the education department officials to conduct audits of schools, who have allegedly hiked fees, in the next 10 days.
“Solanki has also directed the officials that students who haven’t paid fee will not be denied online education under any circumstances. Many parents have reported that online education was denied to students who could not pay the full fees. In some cases, transfer certificates (TC) were also given to some students,” said Ekad.
Jayshree Deshpande, President, Parents Association of Pune, who was also present at the meeting, said that 50 per cent fee reduction issue was also discussed.
“We will meet Imtiaz Qazi, joint secretary, school education, this week to reduce the academic fee by 50 per cent as parents are facing pay cuts and job loss,” said Deshpande.
Temkar, director, Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and education department officials from Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) attended the meet.
