In a much-needed relief for the parents under financial stress due to the Covid-19 triggered lockdown, the Chandigarh Administration on Wednesday barred private schools from increasing the fees for the academic session 2020-21.
An order in this regard was issued by UT Administration following a number of complaints received from the parents that schools are collecting extra charges in the name of tuition fee and have also increased the tuition fee substantially.
“There will be no increase in school fee for the year 2020-21 without specific approval from the Administration. Tuition fee will be charged at same rates as was charged in the year 2019-20 and no hidden or additional charges will be included,” the order issued by Manoj Parida, Adviser to UT Administrator stated.
“All private schools shall display the details of fee structure (specifically tuition fee) as per the provisions of Fee Regulation Act, 2016 on their website and will also intimate the same to Administration on or before June 15,” the order said.
“The decision is taken keeping in view the financial hardships of the parents due to lockdown,” it added.
On May 18, the UT Administration had allowed the private-unaided schools to collect tuition fees on monthly basis from parents. The last date to deposit tuition fee was decided as 15th of every month from June 2020 onwards.
Following this order, a series of parents’ protests outside private schools were witnessed in last two weeks in the city. Agitated parents had alleged that the schools are demanding consolidated fees, with some schools even asking for advance payment of three months.
Meanwhile, the order issued on Wednesday pointed out, “Directions were issued to upload income, expenditure account and balance sheet as per the provisions of Section 5 of the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions Act 2016 as extended to UT Chandigarh but most of the private schools have not complied with the said provisions of the Act and therefore, exact financial status of the most of the schools could not be ascertained. Moreover, most of the schools have not uploaded the complete fee structure on their website as per the provisions of the Act.”
“As per the conditions of allotment of land to Educational Institution (schools) on lease hold basis in Chandigarh Scheme, 1996, amended in 2001 and 2005, all private schools have to follow the directions regarding fee structure issued by Chandigarh Administration from time to time,” it further said.
Last month, 51 private schools out of 77 in Chandigarh were issued show-cause notices by UT Administration for not uploading income and expenditure details on their websites.
Welcoming the Wednesday’s order by UT Administration, Nitin Goyal, President, Chandigarh Parents’ Association said, “The Administration has responded to the hundreds of complaints sent by parents in the last one week. Today’s order indicates that the Administration is in no mood to be toyed around by the private school’s lobby and will take a final decision after 'ascertaining the exact financial status' of the schools and they have to upload their balance sheets and income-expenditure accounts.”
“We welcome the relief in reversing the fee hike, however, the term tuition fee continues to be the bone of contention since most schools merged all other heads in tuition fee in the recent years, so they will try to wiggle their way out from this order. The Administration must also regulate the rates of late fees charged by the private schools, he added.
Notably, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while disposing of a PIL a day before had made it clear that individual parents and students could approach the schools concerned and thereafter the Grievance Redressal Committee in case they are facing hardships regarding paying of fees.
