Gandhinagar: The Gujarat government today announced the revised maximum fee limits under the Gujarat Self-financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017.

The annual fee slabs prescribed in the section 9 of the act which earlier was Rs 15,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 27,000 for primary, secondary and higher secondary schools, respectively has now been revised as Rs 15,000,(unchanged) Rs 25,000 (unchanged) while for the higher secondary science stream it has been increased to Rs 30,000 per annum for commerce and general etc it has been kept the same as earlier ie 25,000.

Addressing a press conference here this evening Education minister Bhupendra Chudasama said that the decision has been take after the detailed representations to the panel set up under Chairman of the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) A J Shah, was appointed as the head of a seven-member committee formed by the state government to fix the new fee limit for self-financed schools and create different categories of fee structure in the wake of the February 1 Supreme Court order regarding the act.

He said that the decision to hike the fees in the science stream of higher secondary schools has been taken keeping in view the expenses incurred owing to the payment to lab technicians and labs etc.

He said that those schools which were taking more fees than this limit would have to give reason for it by March 14.

The Fee Regulation Committee will now announce a provisional fee structure by March 28 and the zonal committee will announce the final fee structure on May 2, a day before the hearing of the matter by the Supreme court on May 3.

The panel headed by Shah had heard all the sides including the guardians and school operators.

Notably, on February 1, hearing the petition filed by Federation of Self Finance Schools, against the Gujarat High Court’s verdict upholding the constitutional validity of the Gujarat Self- Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017, the Supreme Court hand ordered some minor technical changes and take some steps for deciding the fee structure.

DeshGujarat