Parents upset as state fee draft rules forget to mention unaided schools

Draft rules for the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fee) Act, 2011, failed to clearly mention unaided schools, which upset many parents. The education department, however, said the final rules will include unaided schools.

The school education department recently put up on its website the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fee), Rules, 2015, for stakeholders to submit suggestions objections till October 23.

But the draft rules were criticised by parents and non-governmental organisations working in the field of education as they failed to mention unaided schools. “The rules were needed to fix fees and PTA elections in private unaided schools and minority schools, which are covered under the main Act. The government deliberately did not mention private unaided schools in the rules,“ said Jayant Jain, president, Forum for Fairness in Education, an NGO.

Principal secretary , school education department, Nand Kumar, said the mistake will be rectified. “These are draft rules.The mention of unaided schools may have been left out due to problems in the legal language used. We will run it through the legal department before confirming them. The Act is all about unaided schools, so they obviously won't be left out.They will be covered under the Act.“

The group also found other discrepan cies. “There should have been a specific amount and prescribed limit for security deposit for the gymkhana or computer laboratory . There should also be clarity on where the deposits will be refundable,“ said Jain.

The draft rules have set the quorum for meetings of Parents-Teachers Association at 10%. “But can a meeting be conducted with 10% quorum? This way , fees can be hiked without a real majority . At least two-third members should be present at the meeting,“ added Jain.

Under the Act, fees can be hiked only once in two years, and schools will have to seek permission from the executive committee, if they want to hike fees over 15%.Fees will have to be determined six months before.

Source | Times of India | 17 October 2015