Don’t pay hiked school fees till we decide: State

Parents should not pay hiked school fees until the state government takes a decision on the issue, the education board said on Friday.

Parents should not pay hiked school fees until the state government takes a decision on the issue, the education board said on Friday.

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“If some schools have already hiked their fees, parents should not pay,” R.R. Bhise, deputy director of education told HT.

The counsel comes a day after HT reported that the Unaided Schools’ Forum — comprising 95 private educational institutes — advised its members to issue fee hike circulars before the government decides on whether to regulate fees of unaided institutions.

The state has till February 10, the deadline set by the Bombay High Court, to take a decision on the issue.

Many schools said they have hiked fees only by 10 to 15 per cent or are still in talks with their parent-teacher associations (PTAs). However, parents of DAV School, Panvel, plan to protest the school’s move to raise fees by 50 per cent from April. “How is the school justifying such a big hike?” asked Shivaji Shetty, a father of two.

“Any fee hike should be approved by PTA members,” said Jayant Jain, president of the Forum for Fairness in Education.

Schools argue that a hike is inevitable given the new pay scales, increased electricity bills and inflation. “The quality of infrastructure we provide does not match even the hiked fees,” said Seema Saini, principal of N.L. Dalmia High School in Mira Road, which plans to hike fees by 10 per cent this year.