Empower PTA to decide fees in schools, say Pune parents

Parents from various schools of the city on Monday filed suggestions and objections invited by the state government for preparing the draft of the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Collection of Fees) Act, 2011.

The Crescent Parents Association and Shikshan Hakk Manch had organised a signature campaign outside the central building and collected nearly 3,000 signatures from parents and the general public.

Parents wondered why the state government could not decide on the fee structure of schools similar to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

They said that the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) should be given the rights and powers to decide the fee structure. Moreover, capitation fee should be abolished and if any school violates the norm, then a non-bailable arrest warrant should be issued against the school management.

They also wanted the infrastructure or building maintenance fee to be scrapped. The Rosary School Parents Association also filed suggestions and objections.

Their main demand was that fees payment should be on a monthly basis. School branches should not have different fee structure if all them are situated in a 15-km periphery in the same city, they said.