Schools demanding more than 3 months fees would be dealt with strictly: Education secretary

Gandhinagar: To clear the ‘confusion and chaos’ regarding school fees, after the passage of the Gujarat Self Financed School (Regulation of Fees Bill – 2017), the state government today again urged the guardians to not to pay more than 3 months fees at one go.

Principal Secretary of Education department Sunayana Tomar also advised the guardians to file complaint in her office about the schools which were pressurizing them to deposit one year fees. The government has also issued a notification regarding the bill.

Talking to newsmen she said that strict action would be taken against such schools if found guilty. ‘We have received various kind of complaints in this regard. Some schools are allegedly not releasing the results of the students until the advance fees for the next year is paid. Such schools would be dealt with strictly,’ she said.

Meanwhile, the District Education officer in Surat has started the probe of an alleged case in which a local private school had allegedly kept a junior kg student in its ‘captivity’ for non payment of fees.

Notably the Gujarat Self Financed School (Regulation of Fees Bill – 2017) was passed in the state assembly on March 30 and is awaiting governor’s nod to become an act. The bill has put the upper limit of annual school fees at Rs 15000, 25000 and 27000 for Pre-primary/primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary sections respectively. The school found to be breaching the provisions will have to pay Rs 5 lakh penalty for the first breach, 10 lakh for second and lose its affiliation on the third breach. It also has provision for committees led by retired judges to take up complaints in this regard.

The government has already made it clear that the schools which have already taken more than prescribed fees would have to adjust and equalize the remaining account.

DeshGujarat