‘All schools should get aid’

The Maharashtra government has made a plan to introduce a bill and later an act to regulate fees of unaided schools but this is not yet a reality.

The Maharashtra government has made a plan to introduce a bill and later an act to regulate fees of unaided schools but this is not yet a reality.

HT Image

The government will have to enact this in line with the Supreme Court judgement of October 2002, which ruled that school managements can fix their fees but cannot make more than a 20 per cent profit. This surplus was supposed to be utilised for the institution’s development.

However, some schools do not meet these norms and charge very high fees, sometimes making as much as 400 per cent over their expenses. Despite charging this much they don’t even pay their teachers 6th pay commission scales.

A majority of parents are not ready to fight against such things because it is so difficult to get admission to a school in the first place.

Afterwards, how can they fight with the same management?

To bring down this kind of commercialisation, the government should give all schools grants, otherwise they have to take money from parents to be able to run the show.

Because this is the first year of change, there will be naturally be fear and anxiety.