By Our Reporter
Shillong, Feb 26: The Voice of the People Party (VPP) on Monday questioned the state government’s silence on hefty school fee.
Moving a call attention motion in the Assembly on a recent notification of the Education department on school calendar to be followed during the academic year and other guidelines for schools, VPP legislator Adelbert Nongrum said the steep monthly fee charged by the private schools is becoming a real struggle for parents and guardians.
He said the annual fee, payable at the start of the academic session, is about 6 times the monthly fee. He said this means the parents are required to pay an additional half year of monthly fees if they wish to continue sending their wards to the same school.
“There is a lot of public resentment against this. Nowhere is it explained why and on what account such a high annual fee is charged. On top of it, most private schools, which charge annual fee, are already receiving grant-in-aid from the government for development of facilities,” Nongrum said.
He asked the state government why the Education department cannot regulate the fees charged by private schools. He said the matter of school fee in private institutes comes under the administrative purview of the department as per Section 2 clause (n) of the RTE Act.
“It will, therefore, be a great disservice to the school students of the state if the government does not step in to regulate the monthly fee and annual fee charged by the private-aided schools,” the VPP legislator said.
He further said that there are some states which have regulatory bodies to set guidelines for fee fixation to ensure affordability and prevent arbitrary increase.
“Why can’t it be done in Meghalaya? Fixation of fees charged by a school should be based on certain considerations. For example, monthly tuition fee and yearly increment should be fixed only after a consensus with the Parent Teacher Association,” Nongrum said.
According to him, the admission fee should cover administrative expenses but it should not be too high.
He further stated that the annual fee can cover various administrative and operational costs incurred on a student during the academic year but it cannot be as high as 6 times the monthly fee.
Further, Nongrum observed that the schools charge many other fees such as development fee, sports fee, library fee, laboratory fee, computer fee, transportation fee, activity fee, miscellaneous fee etc.
“How can parents and guardians of students just pay the fees charged and not be able to say anything at all?” he asked.
In his reply, Education Minister Rakkam A Sangma said the department will examine the fee structure of schools, especially government-aided schools and those which receive grant from the government.
He admitted that fee structure is an issue which many parents and students raised with the department.
“We are on the job to examine this matter. The Meghalaya State Education Commission is also examining it,” Sangma said.
He said they are not only examining the fee structure at school level but also at institutes of higher education, including colleges and universities, to tackle the disparity in fee structures. The department will examine whether to form a committee to study this pertinent issue, he added.