Schools charging excess fees may face govt action

The government will take strict action against city schools that charge excess fees, demand donations or exploit premises for commercial gains, school education minister Rajendra Darda told the legislative assembly on Wednesday.

The government will take strict action against city schools that charge excess fees, demand donations or exploit premises for commercial gains, school education minister Rajendra Darda told the legislative assembly on Wednesday.

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A committee headed by Darda, comprising legislators and education experts, will meet on Monday to decide on the issue.

Darda also assured the house no linguistic minority school will be allowed to make its first language compulsory for students.

Nitin Sardesai of the MNS claimed that two schools in Wadala — Andhra Education Society High School and National Kannada High School — were forcing students to learn Telugu and Kannada, respectively.

Darda said the two schools had been directed to stop doing so.

Darda also said that his committee would look into BJP MLA Mangalprabhat Lodha’s claims that some schools in south Mumbai had stopped admissions to allow commercial activity on the school premises.

Darda also said that the civic administration had not sought the state’s permission on privatisation of civic schools, as primary education in Mumbai was the corporation’s responsibility.

“But we will ensure privatisation does not impact quality of education in civic schools,” Darda assured the house.

The minister said the education department had approved 5,900 extra divisions in schools this year to accommodate the growing number of students across the state.