Law fails to restrict fee hikes in city schools

We were called for a PTA meeting in which the new initiative was merely discussed. Later on we found that the school took our attendance as consent. Our requests for another meet has also been rejected. We are calling expert Iitians to hold classes for our students. It had received a good feedback from parents when we started it on trial basis last year... We took it forward only after talking to parents.

At least six to seven schools in Mumbai have hiked their fees without parents’ consent in the last two weeks, ahead of the new academic year, 2017-18. This has raised doubts over the effectiveness of Maharashtra’s school fee regulation law, which seeks to limit fee hikes and involve parents in the process to ensure that schools do not increase fees arbitrarily.

The Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2011, in effect since December 2014, requires managements of private unaided schools to put forth proposed fees for the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) executive committee’s approval, six months before the start of the new session.

Parents said that schools are violating the law by not giving parents prior notice or seeking their approval before increasing fees. They hike every year, while the Act allows this only once in two years.

At Terna Orchids School, Ghansoli, parents were asked to pay Rs10,000 (for Class 6 and 7) and Rs15,000 (for Class 8) in addition to their regular fees as the school has hired a special faculty to teach math and science.

The school had hiked its fees by 10% last year.

Parents said that this was done without their approval. “We were called for a PTA meeting in which the new initiative was merely discussed. Later on we found that the school took our attendance as consent,” said Rakesh Mundhra, a parent.

“We are calling expert Iitians to hold classes for our students. It had received a good feedback from parents when we started it on trial basis last year,” said Pratibha Mishra, principal of the school. “We took it forward only after talking to parents.”

Activists said that fee disputes are increasing because the fee act is silent on schools charging fees under different heads. “This is a loophole that is being exploited by schools,” said Jayant Jain, president of the Forum for Fairness in Education. “Schools are charging exorbitant amounts as security deposit, admission fees and other things,” he added.

Another problem is the delay in setting up state-level and divisional fee regulation panels for parents or schools to approach in case of disputes.

The divisional panel was formed only last year, while the revision panel became operational last month. As a result, hundreds of fee hike disputes are still pending with them.