School fee

For any subsequent violation, NCPCR has proposed that the school be put in a “no admission category” and barred from admitting new students.

“Instead of closing the school, which jeopardises the schooling of existing students, we have proposed that no fresh admission should be allowed in the school. This will allow the existing students to complete their education,” said a second NCPCR official involved in drafting the regulations.

The regulation of educationrelated matters is the domain of the HRD ministry, but NCPCR has stepped in to draft the proposed fee regulations for unaided schools, citing Section 13 of the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005 and Section 32 of Right to Education (RTE) Act, which gives NCPCR the authority to review safeguards recommend measures to protect child rights.

Vimla Ramachandran, a professor at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, who has been working on elementary education, said a central regulation to check arbitrary fee hikes will be a welcome move although she has doubts whether one will be passed. “The private school lobby is very strong and will not allow it to go through,” she said.

But Avinash Chandra, member of National Independent Schools Alliance, a national federation of private unaided school associations from across India said that if NCPCR has proposed a fee framework, they should also look at how much government is spending in their own schools. “Its not practical. Private schools don’t get any aid from government and need to raise their own revenue. We have to spend on ugrading the school infrastructure from time to time. We also have to give good salary package to teachers.”

In the last few years, states such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and more recently Uttar Pradesh have framed laws to regulate fees charged by private, unaided schools. Delhi passed a bill to regulate fee hike in such schools way back in 2015 but it is yet to be become an Act after the Centre objected to some of provisions.

But lax monitoring has resulted in unaided schools continuing with arbitrary fee hikes. “The fee structure also varies. A central regulation will go a long way in bringing uniformity in fee structure of such schools and can also result in strict enforcement,” the first official cited above said. “Every year, the school increases the fee by 15 %. This year, apart from the fee hike they have taken development charge also but hardly any facilities have been added in the school..,” said Pramod Lohia, a parent whose two children study in a Delhi school.