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Fee Act to regulate Uttarakhand private schools this year: school education minister
Uttarakhand school education minister Arvind Pandey Friday reiterated the BJP’s government’s resolve to bring in a law to regulate the fee structure at private schools in the hill state
Uttarakhand school education minister Arvind Pandey Friday reiterated the BJP’s government’s resolve to bring in a law to regulate the fee structure at private schools in the hill state.
Pandey didn’t announce any time frame but added that an act to reign in the private schools will be formulated this year.
“There should be a way to regulate the private schools as they collect fee without disclosing the charges. We don’t want to curb the freedom of private schools, but we also don’t want parents should suffer. Parents have the right to know the structure of the fee. And the government should also be informed,” Pandey said here.
Sources in the know of the things said that the BJP government was taking cue from a draft bill — Fee Control and Disposal of Complaints Bill, 2015 — formulated during previous Congress government. The bill empowers the government to make it mandatory for schools to display the fee under various heads like sports, extracurricular activities, taxes and others. The bill also gives the government the power to reschedule fee revision, which is currently done at least once every two years.
Pandey was speaking to the media after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hans Foundation for Akshay Patra Yojna. The project facilitates a centralized kitchen which would provide mid day meal to nearby schools.
The MoU has been signed for 9 kitchens for which the foundation donated Rs 70 crore. These kitchens would be established at Dehradun, US Nagar, Haridwar and Nainital. More such kitchens would come up in Kumaon as well, Pandey said.
He said state has started publishing NCERT books and 60% of it is already available in the market.
