The government came in for criticism in the Assembly for not implementing the Right to Education Act and not fixing the fee for private schools.
Replying to a Calling Attention motion moved by DMK member R. Siva informing the house on the lack of initiatives from the government to implement RTE and streamlining fee system in private schools, Minister for Education, R. Kamalakannan, said the Education Department had implemented 75 per cent of provisions of the RTE act.
A committee under Justice Akbar Ali has fixed the fee for 302 private schools in the UT and the free structure was communicated to the schools on June 6, he said. Subsequently, the schools approached the Madras High Court.
Mr. Kamalakannan said he came to know that the court on June 12, issued an order against publishing the fee till June 18. The minister’s reply brought angry reactions from Mr. Siva, Congress member R.K.R. Anantharaman and AIADMK member A. Anbalagan.
Mr. Siva sought to know from the government why the committee waited till June to fix the fee when it was a known fact that the academic year would commence this month. He said the private schools are charging hefty sums and the government was not able to reign in the private management.
Mr. Anbalagan and Mr. Anantharaman supported the argument of Mr. Siva and criticised the government over its stand on implementing RTE and fixing the fee structure for private schools.
Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said the government had no control over the fee committee.
