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The Hyderabad High Court on Monday proposed regulating the fees of private schools in the city after a PIL claimed that some schools were collecting a one time fee of up to Rs 7 lakh per student during admission.
The PIL was filed by the Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA), which claimed that this one time fee was more than the regular fees of the school.
The Times of India reported:
Kalpana Ekbote, the counsel for the association told the court that the OTF is nothing, but banned capitation fee now brought in with a new name. Referring to the Telangana government's drive against errant professional colleges and the establishment of a fee regulatory committee, Justice Bhosale told the state counsel A Sanjeev Kumar that the situation was grave after Kumar told the court that their own survey had revealed that 160 schools in Hyderabad are collecting OTF from Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh.
Representing the state, Telangana additional advocate general Ramachandra Rao reportedly told the court that a KG to PG education policy, which was part of the TRS' manifesto in 2014, would solve the problem.
The court posted the case to next Monday.
Concerned by the frequent hike in fee of private schools, the HSPA met Governor ESL Narsimhan at Rajbhavan last month to discuss the issue. The governor promised to look into the matter and supported the demand for an MRP (Maximum Retail Price) on the school fee.
One of the parents Sachin, had earlier told TNM, "Exponential hike in fee of private schools in Hyderabad has become unbearable. High admission fee, in cash without receipt, is justified by schools to take care of unaccounted expenses (bribes), which is unacceptable to parents. The government is not auditing the schools and is giving a free hand to this practice. The buck stops with the CM and KTR now, people are watching.”
The HSPA and JAC-SFR (Joint Action Committee for School Fee Regulation) plan to meet all the top government leaders and authorities concerning the issue.