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Permalink Reply by Lathaa Manavalan on January 24, 2013 at 10:28am

Parents remain helpless in this matter until the Government take proper initiative to regulate the fees. Fees were hiked 10 to 15% citing pay hike of Sixth pay commission and again in name expenditure towards 25% EWS seats as per RTE Act.

Tamil Nadu Govt. has successfully regulated the fee structure. And AP, Pondicherry, Rajasthan Govts plan to set up the regulatory authority like the one in Tamil Nadu. Delhi is on its way by committee submitting the accounts report to high court.

TN Govt. had formed the committee under Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act 2009.

The committee comprised the directors of school education, elementary education, additional secretary (school education) and joint chief engineering of public works (buildings), which entrusted with the task of determining the fee structure in all schools. The fees was determined after taking into account the locality of the school namely rural area, town panchayat, municipality, district headquarters and corporation, the strength of students, classes of study and status of schools with regard to their infrastructure.

The committee, which had to function within its stipulated constitutional framework, should at least ensure that the fees demanded by private schools are limited to a reasonable amount, they demanded.

As per rules framed under the Act, every private school should keep separate accounts for different kinds of transactions namely fees collected, grants received, financial assistance received, payment of salary to staff, purchase of machinery and equipment etc. The accounts, registers and records should be kept within the premises of the educational institution and be made available for inspection by the authorised officer.

The Act also empowers the authorised officer and district committee member to have free access to books, documents, securities, cash and other property belonging to or in custody of every private school and to summon any person in whose possession they are, to produce the same. The authorised officer or district committee members will send a report with relevant records to the director.

The rules also stipulate that every private school submit to the Appropriate Officer the annual financial return for the period ending March 31, every year. District committees will be constituted in every revenue district with chief educational officer as the chairperson.

If the committee concluded that the school had collected excess fees, it would recommend to the competent authority cancellation of recognition or approval.

So Private Schools Fee Determination committee and Fee Fixation Committee has fixed fees for private schools in the state offering state syllabus, CBSE, ICSE, or any other board syllabus individual fees for individual schools for individual class considering the individual feedback from schools throughout the state.

So government should make decisions to pass a FEE REGULATION BILL soon and regulate the private school management to save the parents from severe economic burden towards school expenditure and stop converting the schools into a business hub.

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