Parents want Education Dept to act as per board rules

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 22

As the new rules pertaining to ‘school fees’ under the CBSE affiliation bylawss has given more teeth to parent bodies, they have now demanded the Department of School Education to prescribe heads under which schools can charge fee.

The Chandigarh Parents Association has from time to time demanded to put in place a regulatory mechanism of fee in private schools.

Lending credence to such demands, the CBSE has laid down that no society, trust, company or school shall charge capitation fee or accept donations for the purpose of admission from students. 

Further, the new rule says that the fee shall be charged under the heads prescribed by the Department of Education of the states and UTs.

As more power is delegated to the state/UT for regulating fee in private schools, the regulations will be a weapon for parents associations to mount pressure on the Education Department to act against private schools. 

The Chandigarh Parents Association has demanded the Education Department to prescribe heads under which schools can charge fee. Nitin Goyal, president, Chandigarh Parents Association said, “We are happy with the new CBSE bylawss. However, the UT’s recent fee regulation rules are contradictory to these. The bylawss require that schools can charge fee only under those heads who are prescribed by the Education Department, while the administration has never prescribed any heads of fee to be charged by the schools. He said the bylawss further required the schools to charge fee only to the extent of meeting the expenses for running the school, while as per the UT’s fee regulation rules, the department would only look whether the fee hike is beyond 8%.”

Meanwhile, Education Secretary BL Sharma said, “We shall examine the clause stated in the CBSE new affiliation bylawss and take appropriate steps.”