Schools,parents see loopholes in Bill to curb arbitrary fee hikes

On Wednesday,the meeting was conducted for the school owners and managements.

President of Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE) Jayant Jain,called the panel discussion an eyewash. He said,“They had invited the parents to present their suggestions. Parents had come all the way from Pune,Nashik,Nagpur,Aurangabad and other parts of the state to participate in the discussion. However,they hardly allowed anyone to speak for more than five minutes. Often during the discussion they interrupted the representatives and asked them to give the rest of their suggestions and queries in writing. Not a single representative was allowed to question or contradict the views of the government or say anything against the panel.”

Avisha Kulkarni,one of the parents who attended the meeting on Tuesday,said,“We clearly opposed the role of PTA in finalising and approving fee hike proposed by the school management. PTA includes representatives whose children are studying in the school and teachers who are employees of the school. The managements can easily put pressure on both the parties and get the hike approved. We have demanded that besides PTA,there should be a statutory body,a government-appointed committee,to approve the fee hikes.”

She added,“We have also suggested that all those schools which come up on government land should be given the status of aided schools. These schools come up on government lands and then charge exorbitant fees for its students. This should be stopped immediately.”

A trustee from a well known school in central suburbs said,“There is no need to give so much importance to the PTA. The bill says that school must conduct PTA elections every year,which we think is not important as it would involve a lot of hassles and politics too.”

Arundhati Chavan from PTA United Forum said,“PTA of every school plays a very important role and there is nothing wrong if it has been authorised to finalise the fee hike. But I agree that the government-appointed committee should have the final say. At the same time,conducting PTA elections too would ensure transparency.”

Another representative of a school management said,“ The pre-primary does not come under the purview of the state government and so they cannot come up with regulations for the pre-primary section.”

Management of aided schools too expressed their displeasure over the proposed bill. Representative of one such school said,“We are not happy with the regulations put forth in the bill as most of the aided schools have not been receiving their non-salary grants. To make sure we do not close down,we charge activity fees etc.”