SCHOOL FEE HIKE BILL: PARENTS PLAN PROTESTS

MUMBAI: Parents of school students from across Maharashtra are planning to protest outside the state Assembly next week, seeking to make the government withdraw a proposed bill amendment that would allow institutes to hike fees if a majority of parents agreed to it.

A draft of the proposed amendment in the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fee) Act, 2011 has a provision wherein school management will be allowed to increase their charges if at least 76% of their wards’ parents say yes to it.

This runs counter to the recommendations of a state-appointed committee from December 2017 which said individual parents and the parent-teacher associations (PTAS) should have more rights when it comes to fee disputes. “Despite requesting the government to scrap some of the pro- management provisions in the draft bill, we haven’t heard from them,” said Anubha Sahai, president of the India-wide Parents Association.

With the ongoing Assembly session, parents have urged the government to not table the contentious draft until the problematic provisions are omitted.

Prasad Tulaskar, a parent who is fighting with a Dadar school on the issue of fee hike said the government was completely in favour of school management in this matter. “Complaints of fee hike are ignored … government officials are not taking action against erring schools,” he added.

ANKITA BHATKHANDE