VIJAYAWADA: Based on the recommendation of the Andhra Pradesh School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission (APSERMC), the State government on Friday issued orders directing the managements of private unaided schools and junior colleges to reduce 30 percent of the tuition fee for the current academic year (2020-21). In other words, managements of private unaided schools and colleges have been asked to collect only 70 percent of the tuition fee collected in the 2019-20 academic year.
The government made it clear that the present arrangement was necessitated and being implemented in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and must not be construed as an affirmation of the fee structure being collected by the respective institutions. The APSERMC had earlier proposed to review and determine the fee structure for private unaided schools and junior colleges for 2020-21 and issued a notification on May 26 this year, directing the schools and colleges to submit relevant data.
However, KAY VEE ORR Education, Mailavaram (Krishna district) filed a petition in the High Court objecting to the same. The court had issued a stay order on the notification for six weeks initially and extended it thereafter. Recalling the same, the State government, in its GO, said the appropriate fee structure among other things will be subject to the decision of the APSERMC as also the High Court. Elaborating further, the government recalled it had directed the schools not to increase fee in view of Covid pandemic and its economic fallout.
Reduction in fees won’t affect pvt institutions much: Officials
Director, School Education and Commissioner, Intermediate Education (CIE), opined that the proposed reduction in fees will not affect the private schools/colleges substantially as their operational and maintenance costs have come down due to the closure of all educational institutions since March 22. Responding to the GO, a few private schools expressed concern over the financial burden they have to bear. “We are already facing problems to give salaries to teachers and other employees.
Tomorrow, our management has called for a meeting. We will discuss the issue and try to figure out how to manage to give salaries to the teachers,” said Ravi Kishore, principal of one of the private schools in Vijayawada. Prof B Srinivas Rao, state president of Private Teachers, Lecturers and Professors’ Welfare Association, said they are ready to accept the government’s decision, provided State and Central governments own responsibility to bridge the gap of 30 per cent and help private schools and colleges pay salaries to teaching and non-teaching faculty.
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