School fee draft policy to be tabled in budget

The school fee regulation policy may become applicable from the current academic year.

The school fee regulation policy may become applicable from the current academic year.

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To be tabled in the current budget session, the policy calls for a fine of Rs5 lakh and imprisonment of up to three years for school managements not adhering to the rules. It also gives special powers to the parent-teacher associations (PTA) to be the decision-making authority in case of any proposed fee hike.

“We have framed the draft policy, talked to all possible stakeholders and taken consideration of the laws drafted by different states. The policy has been in public domain and we have invited objections and suggestions for the same,” said minister of state for education Fauzia Khan while addressing a question on the fee policy in the Legislative Council on Tuesday.

According to Khan, in case a school management proposes to hike fees for a particular academic year, it will first need to put the proposal to the PTA.

Apart from that, this will also have to be backed with relevant accounts, including expenditure and revenue records of the school. The fee hike will need to get a nod from the general body of the PTA.

However, if the PTA is not convinced with the proposed hike, it can appeal with the state divisional committee consisting of a retired high court district judge and members of the state board and ICSE/CBSE board. If the issue is not resolved at this level then there will be state-level committee comprising the director of school education, which will address the issue.