Page 22 - EducationWorld November 2020

Education News

ments. However, this GR was stayed Board (REB) direct-
by the Bombay high court (June 26) in ing private schools to
response to a petition filed by several restrict tuition fees col-
private school managements. lection to senior school
The grouse of a small but noisy (class IX-XII) students.
minority of parents in Maharashtra Moreover, the latter
is that the state government has pro- need to pay only 70
vided no relief to parents during the percent of their annual
pandemic while other states includ- tuition fees.
ing Gujarat, Odisha and Tamil Nadu The rationale behind
among others, have reduced tuition this order is that since
fees by 25-30 percent. On October 10, the Delhi-based Central
the Mumbai-based Forum for Fair- Board of Secondary
ness in Education (FFE) called a na- Education (CBSE) has
tionwide protest against “unjust fees” Private schools protest in Rajasthan reduced the syllabus
charged by private schools. FFE is of its affiliated schools
demanding a state-wide government fees regulation Act is flawed and needs by 30 percent because of time lost
audit of private schools which they to not only be scrapped completely but since mid-March, CBSE schools in
claim are “flush with funds”. replaced with legislation that brings in the state should reduce their fees
We have been demanding educa- more financial transparency through commensurately. Similarly since the
“tion minister Varsha Gaikwad’s digitalisation of administrative pro- Rajasthan State Education Board has
resignation because she has not done cesses. SYSCOM also advocates link- reduced its syllabus by 40 percent,
enough for parents with children in ing fees of private schools with their the annual tuition fees of senior stu-
private schools during these tough capital and recurring expenditure. A dents of its 37,000 affiliated schools
times. She has not ordered audits of SYSCOM spokesperson observes this should also be slashed by 40 percent.
schools that are brazenly flouting the is a time for parents to cooperate with Claiming that their teacher and
state government’s Regulation of Fees rather than confront school manage- staff salaries and overhead expenses
Act, 2011,” says Nilesh Salunkhe, ments. “While government interven- are constant, private schools in the
president of Nashik Parents Associa- tion is imperative to resolve and find state — except top-ranked board-
tion which has a membership of 1,400 permanent solutions to fee-related ing schools and government-aided
parents. issues, parents should not undermine private institutions — grouped under
Although the Maharashtra Edu- the role played by private schools in the banner of Private Schools Forum
cational Institutions (Regulation of providing education,” he says. of Rajasthan (PSFR), have rejected
Fees Act), 2011 allows private schools Good advice, but likely to fall on this directive outright and suspended
to levy self-determined tuition fees, unheeding ears. all teaching-learning activity with
it requires fees to be approved by ev- Dipta Joshi (Mumbai) effect from November 5. However
ery school’s parent teacher associa- in a face-saving response and to buy
tion (PTA). Moreover, Divisional Fee RAJASTHAN time, the Congress government of
entertain complaints only if at least Private schools strike the state promptly declared Diwali
Regulation Committees (DFRCs) can
holidays from November 7-17.
25 percent of the school’s parents are Managements of private schools
party to a petition. However, most ver 48,000 private schools of are particularly outraged by the REB
PTAs are sympathetic to the plight of Rajasthan (pop.78 million) fees reduction formula because PSFR
private school managements for con- Owith an aggregate enrolment and all its member schools had read-
tinuing to pay teachers, staff salaries of 5 million children, which were ily accepted the suggestion of a single
and maintenance and overhead charg- conducting online classes for their judge bench of the Rajasthan high
es while providing online education to students since April after the Central court, that in light of parents having
students. government ordered a shutdown of suffered loss of income and employ-
Gradually well-informed public all schools and education institu- ment because of the Covid-induced
opinion is turning against the small tions countrywide, have suspended lockdown of business, industry
minority of business illiterate parents all teaching-learning operations and economy for over six months,
continuously fault-finding private with effect from November 5. This private schools should collect only
school managements. The Pune-based unprecedented protest has been 70 percent of the contracted annual
think-tank, System Correction Move- prompted by an October 30 directive fees of all students from pre-primary
ment (SYSCOM) believes the current issued by the Rajasthan Education to class XII during the lockdown pe-

22 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2020