Education officials learn from RTA, to raid schools
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The state government is planning raids on private schools to rein in “erring managements” that collect huge fees for admissions. Special inspection teams will be constituted for the purpose, which will conduct raids over the next two weeks. The teams will verify the financial statements of schools and examine whether the fee collected by schools is in accordance with their expenditure. Only 5 per cent profits will be allowed to the schools, and the managements will not be permitted to collect fees over this, based on their income and expenditure statements.
The government had failed to implement the norms as per the GO Ms No.1 issued in 1994 pertaining to infrastructure, faculty, fire safety, fee structure, etc. Taking advantage of this, the managements are fleecing parents by resorting to an indiscriminate fee hike ranging from 20 per cent to 50 per cent every year. The situation is no different in semi-urban and rural areas, with the government receiving complaints that private schools located in small towns are collecting fees up to `20,000 for LKG admissions.
Following the directions by minister for secondary education K. Parthasarathi, the department of school education is gearing up to give a fresh lease of life to the GO Ms No.1. “Time has come for the government to act against erring schools which are fleecing parents by collecting huge donations and admission fees. The government issued orders in 1994 to regulate private schools. But with the schools crossing all the limits and troubling parents, the government is compelled to act against erring managements,” said Mr Parthasarathi.
Despite the parents’ protests against the “unre-asonable fee hike” by the schools before the commencement of every new academic year, the government had turned a blind eye to addressing the issue in the past.
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