Year that saw school fee hike,parents’ protests & panel report

The court asked the state government to come up with a policy on regulation of school fees. The government formed a 19-member committee under the chairmanship of former education secretary Kumud Bansal. However,the recommendations of the committee that came up with its report on October 16 have generated a lot of debate across the state,as it is alleged that the recommendations are pro-school managements.

The report said,“There cannot be uniform and rigid norms for deciding admissible expenditure as schools are affiliated to different boards and norms for every board are different.” But it supported generating 15 per cent surplus funds every year,along with providing a list of admissible expenditure for schools that includes repairs and maintenance of assets,depreciation,annual increments in salaries,inflation and expenses on account of statutory requirements. This point angered the parents.

One of the main objections against the committee was its structure. According to Sandeep Chavan,member of All India Federation of Parent Teacher Association,the 21-member committee had three parents’ representatives and 14 school representatives. Other four were government officers. “Naturally,the report is pro-school managements and against the interests of parents,” he said.

The only positive stand of the committee is its recommendation on capitation. “Schools are proscribed from charging capitation fees and should not be allowed to profiteer,” the committee said.

Parents are not buying the argument though and want the state government to regulate the fees of the entire education sector from pre-primary to post graduation. “There is no guidelines for pre-primary sector where schools demand donations up to Rs 1 lakh for admission to nursery class,” said a parent activist. Milind Wagh of forum against commercialisation of education objects to the very formation of the committee,saying there should be a body for schools just on the lines of a fee regulatory committee for professional colleges in the state.

The government on the other hand is slow to react. Even after two months of government formation,a fulltime minister for schools has not been appointed. Parents can now only hope that 2010 will see a regulation on fees for the academic year ahead.

Meanwhile,the higher education sector in the city was shaken up when Sri Balaji Society came under the scanner of All India Council for Technical Education for allegedly making wrong promises on infrastructure. Mulshi Institute of Technology and Research was the talk of the town for incidents of mass copying in engineering exams. The University of Pune imposed Rs 5 lakh fine on the latter,suspended teachers who helped in mass copying. Following this,acting Vice-Chancellor Arun Adsool declared that he would de-affiliate such institutes.