Draft of school fee structure policy yet to be finalised

Many schools have completed admissions for next academic year

Many parents, who were pinning their hopes on the proposed fee structure policy that seeks to place a cap on fee collected in private schools across the State, are disappointed as the draft of the policy is yet to be finalised even as many schools have completed admissions for the next academic year.

The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) was to finalise the fee structure in December last after taking into consideration around 2,100 objections filed by various stakeholders, including school managements, teachers, and parents.

Many of the stakeholders had termed the draft policy rigid and had criticised the salary structure slab for teaching and non-teaching staff.

The draft policy had fixed the salary of pre-primary teachers in villages at Rs. 2,000 and that of an ayah in rural areas at Rs. 1,000. In Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike limits, the draft proposed Rs. 13,600 as the upper limit of the salary of a teacher, which was criticised by teachers with several years of experience.

Not only have schools charged exorbitant fees, some running into several lakhs, the completion of admission process is in violation of the DPI norms that stipulate non-Right To Education (RTE) Act quota admissions to be taken up only after the RTE admissions are completed in March.

Meanwhile, claiming that the new fee structure would be implemented in the next academic year, Commissioner for Public Instruction Mohammad Mohsin said schools that have collected excess fees would have to refund it.

On the delay in finalising the draft, he said the officials were yet to meet to consider the objections, and the final draft would be sent to the government soon.

Mr. Mohsin said the department would initiate action against schools that had completed admissions if a complaint was filed in this connection.