Tired of fee hikes in Mumbai schools? NGO to tell Maha edu dept how much the fee should be

Puja Pednekar

After the failure of the Maharashtra School Fee Regulation Act failed to check the indiscriminate hike in fees, a non-government organisation (NGO) from Pune has come up with a uniform fee structure for all schools -- a set of parameters which will decide the fees from classes kindergarten to 12 . The draft will soon be submitted to the state education department.

Currently, schools charge fees under different heads such as admission fees, security deposit, computer and activity fees, among others. (HT)

Currently, schools charge fees under different heads such as admission fees, security deposit, computer and activity fees, among others.

“We studied the balance sheets of different schools across Maharashtra to decide a reasonable amount,” said Vaishali Bafna, member of Pune-based Syscom, which had filed a petition against the haphazard first-year junior college (FYJC) admissions in the Bombay high court last year.

Agreeing that the amount can’t be the same in all schools, Bafna said the NGO is trying to fix the parameters to raise the fees.

“While in some schools, the fees are exorbitant, the quality of education or facilities are poor,” said Bafna. “This will stop only if the government compels schools to follow a prescribed format to fix the fees.”

In a recent survey, 55% of parents from Maharashtra admitted that schools have hiked fees in the range of 11% to 20%.

In the past two weeks, six to seven Mumbai schools have increased their fees arbitrarily, without seeking consent of Parent-Teachers’ Association (PTA). “Putting a limit on the fees should help,” said Jayant Jain, president of the Forum for Fairness in Education, a parents-teachers’ body.

According to the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of collection of fees) Act, 2011, effective since December, 2015, the school management must put forth the proposed fees for the approval of the PTA executive panel.

If there is more than 15% difference in the fees proposed by the management and those approved by the PTA, then they can approach divisional fee regulatory committees or state-level revision committee.

In Mumbai: Exorbitant school fee a concern for parents