Schools in Noida Need to be Vigilant About Their Fee Structures

Indeed in the present day, education sector has become a flourishing business. It is a great way of minting money. Schools, colleges, coaching institutes, all are running in this race. In such a scenario there must be some regulation on these practices from the side of the government, only then an improvement can be expected in this area.  Lately one such measure has been taken in Noida, Uttar Pradesh by the district-level fee regulation committee on Saturday, December 1, 2018. It has asked all private schools in Noida to post their fee structure in detail on their respective school website. A copy of the same fee structure would also be required to be submitted to the district inspector of schools. Presently, there are around 139 registered CBSE schools in Gautam Budh Nagar. A meeting was called of all the representatives of schools in the district. In the meeting, district inspector of schools (DIOS), Gautam Budh Nagar, P K Upadhyay stated that stringent and strict regulations are the need of the hour because the schools are not following the instructions despite being reminded repeatedly. Schools have been warned a number of times that they must not change the school uniform every now and then. Also, they must not force the parents to buy the uniforms from a particular shop only. But schools have hardly followed these guidelines so far. This fee regulation committee has been formed in order to implement the Self-Financed Independent Schools (Fee Regulation) Act, 2018. The Committee shall meet up once every month in order to hear the grievances of the parents against the schools. The procedure for getting your complaint heard is as follows:

(i) The aggrieved will have to file written complaints regarding fee structure or additional charges with the schools.

(ii) The schools would have to respond to the parents within 15 days.

(iii) In case if the school fails to respond, the parents to approach the committee which would take up the complaints.

(iv) The complaint would then be heard in the presence of the school representatives.

The Self-Financed Independent Schools (Fee Regulation) Act, 2018 covers all private schools affiliated to any private board including State Education Board, CBSE, ICSE or any school with international affiliations as well which have an annual fee structure exceeding Rs 20,000. The main object of the act is to prevent the schools from charging fee arbitrarily. As per the act, they can only increase by 7-8% that too based on the permission of the committee which will approve by taking into account the consumer price index combined with rise in teachers’ salary. Alongside, a school can charge admission fee only once at the time of admission. Schools that fail to follow these guidelines shall be be fined with penalty of Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 5 lakh for the first and second time respectively. After this, it may get de-recognised also.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://whatsonthorold.com/2018/12/03/noida-schools-told-to-upload-fee-structure-on-their-websites/