The Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association has requested the State Government to amend the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Fee Collection) Act, 2009, to create ‘slabs’ for fixing fees as was being done in professional colleges.
A resolution to this effect was passed at a meeting of the association held in Coimbatore on Saturday. Association president R. Visalakshi said that the State Government must exempt rural schools from Property Tax.
Schools had been encouraged to take differently abled children under the concept of inclusive education. Such children needed special help and were categorised as moderate, severe and profound. Only children under moderate category should be allowed in regular schools, as the schools did not have skilled help to teach them.
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Terming the requirement of 15,000 books in school libraries as very high in this digital age, she called for reducing this number.
Further, she said that the school students needed an open space to play without obstructions. Hence, the number of trees can be reduced.
The association also urged the Fee Determination Committee to grade schools as ‘A’ if they maintained a Teacher-Pupil Ratio of 1:30 in primary classes and 1:35 up to Standard VIII. The stipulation on per capita availability of playground area - 20 sq.m. per child - was very high, the association said, and called for reducing the same.
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The resolution requesting the State Government not to implement the ‘Mothers Monitoring Team’ in private schools was also passed as the association said that this would result in problems. It also called for exempting private schools from the Open Space Reservation norms.