BENGALURU: With seemingly no assistance from the government and courts, parents have taken it upon themselves to help out each other to fight against exorbitant fees in private schools. After the recent high court order on January 5, barring the government from regularising private school fees, parents have been running pillar to post to ensure that fees are not increased needlessly.
There have been several incidents where private schools have hiked fees with even the Karnataka Private School Managements, Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff Co-ordination Committee (KPMTCC) taking a stand in the issue.
With students moving to higher grades, it is expected that fees will be increased. However, parents have reported a fee hike of as much as 27 per cent, meaning that tuition fees of Rs 1.2 lakh go up to Rs 1.52 lakh, a jump by Rs 32,000.
In particular, they have asked a regulatory body on the lines of Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) be set up to deal with the complaints related to private school fees.
However, the state government has promised to move the Supreme Court on the issue. “The government is trying to put out a software that will make details of private schools public to help students and parents, but these will take years to come into effect. Taking the legal route will also prolong the issue, giving private schools time to make money. Right now, parents are crying foul as fees have started going up exponentially and there is nowhere to go,” Mohamed Shakeel, president of the Voice of Parents, Karnataka (VOPK) told TNIE.
“Right now, the only ray of hope is the Right to Education (RTE) Act which says schools can charge fees as approved by the department, though there is no proposal on how they will approve the fees fixed by schools,” Shakeel told TNIE.
“The RTE Act says that schools have to register, take recognition and a no objection certificate from the government to affiliate to other boards, but if the government cannot regulate them, how does it plan on checking profiteering and commercialisation to comply with Supreme Court judgements?” he said.
Meanwhile, he also stated that while parents can approach the District Education Regulatory Authority (DERA), these takes years to decide on the matter, despite resolutions having to be given within three months.