Punjab’s pvt schools allowed to submit ‘continuation fee’

CHANDIGARH: : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday allowed 100-odd private schools in Punjab to deposit continuation fee for the year 2021-2022.

The order was passed by the bench of Justice TS Dhindsa on the plea of Punjab private school organisation, a Patialabased body with 102 members across the state, which had challenged the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) instructions on the issue in July 2020.

The court was hearing a fresh application on the issue from schools. “In the meantime, the same very interim order that had been granted in favour of the petitioner(s) -school organization -- for the academic session 2020-21 would continue to operate even for the ensuing academic session 2021-22,” the bench said, adding that issue required a detailed hearing.

The PSEB in June 2020 had imposed a condition that submission of the continuation fee from the institutions would be permissible only if private schools give an undertaking on certain norms put in place by the government.

The PSEB charges continuation fee of Rs 10,000 for up to matriculation and Rs 20,000 for up to senior secondary level from the schools.

However, in 2020, they were told that only those schools would be permitted to deposit the fee, which sign the undertaking. Otherwise, they won’t be allowed to deposit the fee, which would result in the closure of schools on March 31, 2021.

In the undertaking, the schools had to comply with certain conditions by December 31, 2021.

The conditions included having classrooms of specific size, number of rooms, according to the level of schools. Conditions were also imposed on installing labs, following school fee and syllabus norms, and having a playground. The approved site plan and the change-in-landuse (CLU), in this regard, had to be deposited with the PSEB.

Acting on the plea, the high court in July 2020 had allowed schools to deposit fee without the undertaking.

The same order was extended by the high court on March 31 for the session 20212020, posting the matter for hearing on April 7.

PSEB’S rider

In June 2020, the PSEB had imposed a condition that submission of the continuation fee from the institutions would be permissible only if private schools give an undertaking on certain norms put in place by the government.

The PSEB charges continuation fee of Rs 10,000 for up to matriculation and Rs 20,000 for up to senior secondary level from the schools.