Private schools put on notice for charging fee on quarterly basis

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, June 9

The District Regulatory Body for unaided educational institutions has issued a show-cause notice to all private schools in the district after complaints were received from parents that they were forced to pay school fee, transportation fee and other charges on quarterly basis.

Relevance of dist regulatory body

• To ensure no private school violates the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2019, and to redress complaints of parents and students, the state government formed the district regulatory body in each district across the state in July, 2021.

The schools have been asked to justify the reasons behind charging fee on a quarterly basis. “The schools must answer under whose directions they have been charging fee on a quarterly basis or if there is any law that mandates quarterly charging. Why the parents cannot pay fee on a monthly basis,” the District Regulatory Body asked the schools in the notice.

They also asked the schools to submit their reply by July 10 along with complete details of the fee and funds collected by them in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Besides, the reply must includes details of their profit, profit percentage or average profit for the both the years.

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, ADC(G)-cum-Chairman of the regulatory body Amit Sareen said this decision to issue the show-cause notice to schools was taken during the meeting of the committee members that was held on June 6. He said there was no law and neither any government guidelines have been issued that mandate charging fees on a quarterly basis.

Advocate Manu Jindal, a member of the body, said taking serious note of the complaints received from parents, the notice has been issued to schools. However, the schools in their reply can justify the grounds on which they have been charging quarterly fee. The committee will take the final call on the issue after reviewing all aspects, he said.

The regulatory body is holding meetings on a regular basis and all issues of the parents and the schools are being taken up, he added “Besides, the committee members are making all efforts to aware schools about the guidelines of the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions Act and the owners of the schools have been told that if any school management is found violating the Act, the body would impose hefty penalty and on repeated violation, their affiliation could also be cancelled,” he added.