The Hindu : Unaided schools to be brought under new legislation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 28, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Unaided schools to be brought under new legislation

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM JUNE 27. Unaided schools in the State will be brought under the ambit of the legislation planned for controlling self-financing professional colleges, the Education Minister, Nalakath Soopy, has said.

Replying to questions in the Assembly today, Mr. Soopy said the Government was for a comprehensive legislation for controlling self-financing educational institutions. Replying to questions about unaided schools collecting exorbitant fees, Mr. Soopy said the Government had got information about unaided schools collecting excessive fees, but so far had not got any specific complaints and hence could not act.

Asked whether it had come to the notice of the Government that unaided schools were collecting 12 months' fees, Mr. Soopy said according to the Kerala Education Rules, schools could collect only 10 months' fees.

Action will be taken against those schools which collect 12 months' fees. The fees rate fixed by the Government in unaided schools is as follows: The rate from standard I to VII is Rs. 1,000 and from standard VIII to X is Rs. 1,500. One-third can be collected as special fees. A committee comprising DEO, AEO and VHSE regional director has been appointed to study the fees structure in unaided schools. Aided higher secondary schools could collect only Rs. 500 per month as fees, the Minister said.

There are 1,450 unrecognised unaided schools in the State. The Government has started the process of selecting unaided schools that function remarkably to give them recognition.

The Government has given directions to ensure that the students who have appeared for `Save a Year' examination can join for degree courses. Students of those schools, which have excelled in SSLC examination, have not fared well in Plus Two and entrance examinations. The Government had appointed a committee to study the reasons for the declining standards after the SSLC examination, he said.

Many schools are not following the Government directive to give salary through cheque. The Pre-Primary Education Bill will be introduced in this session itself. Discussions are on with managements to raise the income limit for fees concession to students admitted in self-financing engineering colleges in the merit quota. Now, the annual income limit is Rs. 60,000. Hence many were not getting admission and this had come to the Government's notice, he said.

The All India Council for Technical Education has reduced by 50 per cent the seats in the Barton Hill Engineering College for electrical and electronics, electronics and communication, and mechanical engineering courses. These courses had 60 seats each. Counselling had been completed for Idukki and Wayanad engineering colleges hoping to get AICTE permission, he said.

The Information and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, M. M. Hassan, said that 17 Malayalis had been imprisoned in Oman and 26 in Quatar. There were 349 Indian prisoners in Saudi Arabia. The State Government had asked the Centre to appoint a legal attache in the Indian embassies in the Gulf countries to provide legal assistance to the Malayalis.

The Public Works Minister, M. K. Muneer, said that the feasibility study of the Express Highway had been completed and the alignments had been charted out. Financial structuring of the project was being studied, he said.

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