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New Education Policy: Under the proposed model draft, private schools will no longer be able to charge fees on the basis of uniform standard nor will they be able to increase the fees arbitrarily.
New Education Policy: Education may be the subject of the state, but with the start of the new academic session every year, the central government is now going to take strict steps in view of the increasing conflict between parents and school management due to the increase in arbitrary fees by private schools. For this, work has started to establish a transparent and accountable system. The central government is preparing a model draft, which all states and union territories will be able to implement the arbitrary fees of schools to curb the increase.
Law is in only two states
At present, only in Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, there are laws to prevent arbitrary fees. The law implemented in 2018 in Uttar Pradesh is considered to be the most strict in this case. In other states, in the absence of such a system, parents have to face trouble every year.
Initiative under the new National Education Policy
The Ministry of Education has taken this step to implement the recommendations of the new National Education Policy. It has been clearly stated in the NEP that the main goal of schools should be to provide quality education. The policy has questioned the existing regulatory system to not curb the economic exploitation of parents and increasing commercialization of education.
What is model draft outline?
Under the proposed model draft, private schools will no longer be able to charge fees on the basis of uniform standard nor will they be able to increase the fees arbitrarily. For this, the ranking of schools will be decided on the basis of their infrastructure, quality of teachers and academic performance.
- State School Standards Authority (Triplesa): An independent body will be established in every state and union territory, which will prepare the ranking of schools.
- District Fee Regulatory Committee: Approval of this committee will be mandatory for fees determination and increase. The committee will include District Officers, District Education Officer, Parents Association and School Association representatives.
Major rules and provisions
- Will not be able to charge any additional fees other than school fees.
- Information related to fees, dress, books etc. will have to be made public and before the session starts, the District fee will have to be given to the regulatory committee.
- Schools will not be able to charge a lump sum annual fees. Parents will have to give the option of payment of 6 months, 3 months or 1 month.
- Parents will be able to challenge the disputes related to fees before the committee. The committee will have to take a decision in 15 days.
- The committee will hear like a civil court and its decision will be binding for everyone.
- In case of disagreement, the decision will be challenged in front of the Divisional Fee Regulatory Committee and then the State Fee Regulatory Committee within 30 days.
Strict action will be taken against schools that do not follow the rules. For the first time, a fine of Rs 1 lakh can be imposed on violation and a fine of up to Rs 5 lakh for making a second mistake. Apart from this, other legal action can also be taken.
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