Indore slams the brakes on annual school fee hike

The Indore district collector directed all schools not to put into effect any fee hike for the coming academic session, issuing an order that sternly condemned the institutions for hiking fees every year.

The Indore district collector directed all schools not to put into effect any fee hike for the coming academic session, issuing an order that sternly condemned the institutions for hiking fees every year.

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District collector Ashish Singh issued the orders under Section 144 of CrPC on Monday. The order said those found violating it would be punished under Section 188 of the IPC.

The district education officer in his report on April 16, 2015 noted that most of the schools were hiking fees by 10% every year, prompting resentment among parents, the order said.

The education officer’s report also mentions that a fee review meeting of parent’s association, school authorities and education department officials should also be held to decide on any increase in fees.

The order of the collector comes in the wake of protest by Indore Parents Association, a parents body, that had pointed out in a memorandum before the ADM Sudhir Kochar that many of the top schools in the city were hiking fees without any justification and against stipulated rules.

The parent’s body had also urged setting up of a fees regulatory body with members of the administration and parents’ representatives as members of the body.

In their memorandum, the association had given details of fees hike undertaken by various schools and it transpired that most of them had increased fees between 15% and 30% annually and in the past five years many schools had increased fees by 200 per cent.

They also charged that the schools were milking money from the parents in the name of development fees, books, dress, annual function and annual trips.