Schools want fee monitoring committee

The managements of various schools, upset over the recent announcement that the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) will have a role in determining the fee structure if the proposed fee regulation act is passed in the assembly session, have instead suggested a state-level fee monitoring committee.

On the second day of the meeting with government officials, they voiced their objections against various clauses in the proposed Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act.

“The PTA should not meddle in fee structure. They will not be able to come up with a unanimous decision since a PTA has at least 50 members,” said one school management representative who attended the meeting.

The bill states that private schools will have to get any proposed fee hike approved by their respective PTA ten months ahead of implementing it. The PTA and the management will then have to inform a divisional fee regulatory committee of the consensus on the fee structure.

Instead, school representatives suggested a state-level fee monitoring committee for the entire state to which parents can complain if they feel schools are profiteering.

There was also dissatisfaction with a clause in the proposed act that says school officials will be liable to pay a fine of Rs5 lakh and face up to three years imprisonment for collection of excess fees. “Educators should not be treated like criminals,” said a representative.