Karnataka govt panel to fix uniform fee for ICSE and CBSE schools

The state education department will soon fix the fee structure for all schools affiliated to the Indian Certificate for Secondary Education (ICSE) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Following the recent high court order, the state education department has decided to regulate admissions to schools affiliated to ICSE and CBSE.

As a first step, it is planning to set up a committee to fix the fee structure. This will be on the lines of ‘fee fixation committee’ which has been formed by the higher education department to fix the fee for professional educational institutions.

Official sources said talks on fee structure are in the primary stage and the plan will be finalised soon.

“Over the years, we’d been requesting the Union ministry of human resource development to exercise some control on ICSE-CBSE schools… Finally, we got that right through the HC and we will soon act accordingly,” said Vishveshwar Hegde Kageri, primary and secondary education minister.

He said he has gone through the order and directed the department officials to come out with suggestions to regulate schools affiliated to other boards.
“The committee, which we are planning to set up, will visit each school and fix the fee as per the criterion. The fee will differ from one school to another based on the standard of the school, number of students, faculty members and other facilities provided,” a senior official of the department said.

However, this will not be implemented in 2011-12 academic year. It will take at least six months to fix the fee structure, the official added.