JAIPUR: The decision of some private schools in the city to implement fee hike has given jitters to parents. The schools have hiked fee from 23% to 35%. In the absence of any regulatory body, it is most likely for the parents to shell out more money for their children’s education from coming academic session.
Several private unaided schools have already issued a revised fee structure for 2009-10 and distributed among the students today. The decision has evoked mixed reaction among the Parents’ community, which has a strength of over 1 lakh (parents of students studying in CBSE schools in Jaipur).
“The schools could have explained the mechanism governed by them for deciding the quantum of fee hike. The fee hike would prove fatal for the parents,” said Jayesh Sadhwani, a parent working with an IT firm. Many parents have expressed their inability to protest against the fee hike publicly fearing it’s implications on their children.
In Delhi, when unaided schools get land on concession rate from the government, they are bound to reserved 10% seats for students belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. However, in Rajasthan there is no such provision of providing free education to the children belonging to BPL families.
“Although, schools get land on concession rate from the government agencies like Rajasthan Housing Board and Jaipur Development Authority, there is no such directive of providing fee education to poor students,” said Damodar Goyal, president, Society for Unaided Private Schools in Rajasthan.
In the wake of any such provision, the schools are getting the benefits from government without passing on to the weaker sections of society. The educationists alleged the private schools for keeping their financial data under the carpet. “They have violated the government instructions of maintaining a status quo on the fee hike till the report comes,” said Rajeev Gupta, city-based educationist.
Meanwhile, the private schoolteachers have requested the parents association and the government to consider their rights before making any constitutional move. “Every employee expects a yearly reward in the form of increment and other benefits.
We are not different from others. Our rights shouldn’t be neglected,” said Radhika Bose, English teacher.
The role of state government is no lesser than a mere spectator. They showed urgency in forming a committee with limited jurisdiction to resolve the matter. Now they have pulled back from any further intervention due to model code of conduct.
Notably, Supreme Court in the TMA Pai case Judgement on 2002 observed, The unaided institutions have the fundamental right to administer, including fixing fee structure and no interference from the government, the government may make rules to check profiteering.”
The decision to revise the fee structure comes after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations in the state. Ever since the implementation of the panel recommendation, the payscale of all the teachers in government schools has seen an increase. City school authorities have explained the reason for the proposal as they would also have to increase the
salaries of their staff so that there is a parity between them and the government staff.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
()
Related Posts: