Gujarat schools cannot charge more than provisional fee, clarifies DEO

The District Education Officer (DEO) on Thursday made it clear that schools cannot charge anything other than the provisional fee, as instructed by the Supreme court. The state government on Wednesday had knocked the doors of the Supreme Court seeking clarity on some key points with reference to the February 1 order passed by the bench while hearing a case related to the Gujarat Self-Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act. The matter was mentioned on Thursday and has been scheduled for the next hearing on February 16. Speaking with DNA, Navneet Mehta, DEO (city) said, "Schools can only charge a provisional fee as approved by the FRC. They cannot charge anything apart from the provisional fee."

Naresh Shah, President, All Gujarat Parents Association said, "We will be approaching the FRC on Friday to give our representation of maintaining the lower-cut of at Rs 15000 for primary school, Rs 25000 for secondary school and Rs 27000 for higher secondary school. We do not want any increase in fixation. With this request, we will be putting our stand before the FRC tomorrow."

In its February 1 order, the Supreme Court had asked the state government to consult schools and parents to fix the exemption limit.

The court had further asked the state government to reconstitute the fee fixation committees and the revisional authority, headed by retired high court judges within a period of one week.