HYDERABAD: The first meeting of the committee set up by the government to examine and propose rules for school fee regulation, began with a tussle between the Telangana Recognised Schools Management Association (TRSMA) and Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA) when the former turned up with more representatives than mandated.
The draft of the new GO by the Telangana government was handed over to the participants. The highlight of the meeting was that the previous GO that was scrapped earlier this month when the Schools Association raised objections to it during a meeting with the chief minister, was also tabled.
HSPA who has been spearheading the agitation against exorbitant fee collected by the schools in the city, was left fuming when the previous GO --drafted and ready-- by the previous committee was scrapped just before it was to be made public. The government set up another committee under the chairmanship of Prof. Tirupathi Rao, former vice-chancellor of Osmania University, to formulate rules for setting up District Fee Regulatory Committees (DFRCs).
It’s worth mentioning that this is the fourth such committee formed by the government for the issue in the last two years and the most recent one was in December 2016. Though HSPA was happy that the earlier draft was tabled, the Parents Association are still skeptical about the committee’s intention to set up the DFRCs.
“By formulating a new committee it is clear that the School Management Associations and the government are perhaps trying to delay setting up of DFRCs,” said Ashish Naredi, HSPA representative.
The Parents' body also reiterated its demand with the committee and the government that the fee hikes for the ensuing academic year (2017-18) be stopped as an interim measure before proceeding further.
“Several schools in the city have already hiked the fees by more than 30 per cent for the upcoming session. And we want the government to stay any fee hike to reassure parents that it is actually serious about not delaying the process for setting up DFRCs,” said Venkat Sainath, joint secretary HSPA.
The committee will reconvene on April 4.