Bihar edu minister hails SC order on fee relief to pvt school students

PATNA: Following the Supreme Court’s order to private schools, offering relief to students towards fee payments, the state education department is considering framing a policy to ensure that the parents received the benefits as stipulated in the order.

The Supreme Court, in a case filed by private schools of Rajasthan, has ruled that the schools shall not be charging money for the unutilized campus facilities and that the students be allowed to avail at least 15% reduction in annual fee for the academic session 2020-21, the pandemic phase. It also said none of the students be held up for want of payment of fees.

The judgment was made public by the apex court on Tuesday.

Private schools had gone to the apex court against the Rajasthan government’s order to cut tuition fee of students enrolled in CBSE-affiliated schools by 30% and the state board by 40%, respectively.

Bihar’s education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said the judgment was in tune with the state government’s appeal to private schools to offer relief to the students who remained off the campuses due to Covid19 pandemic.

“In the last assembly session, we urged private schools to rationalize fee structure and charge minimal from the students so that the schools also get the amount required for the sustenance of their staff,” said Chaudhary.

Additional chief secretary (education) Sanjay Kumar said the department was waiting for full judgment of the apex court to frame suitable strategy to act and help the parents get fee reduction in accordance with the order.

There are over 25,000 private schools in the state with a total of around 50 lakh students.

“The school has been charging transportation fee, computer fee, science laboratory charge, etc, even though my son did not go for off-line studies,” said Namrata Kumari of Shashtri Nagar, whose son is in class 10 at a private school in the nearby locality.

National president of Private Schools and Children Welfare

Association Syed Shamael Ahmad hailed the judgment, saying it made clear that the state government could not regulate the fee structure of private schools. “So far as granting relief to the students, private schools would definitely honour the verdict by giving 15% concession on fees,” said Ahmad.

He said all private schools should abide by the SC verdict. “However, the guardians are also requested to clear the dues to the schools so that they could pay salary to teaching and non-teaching staff, who are dependent on the school to sustain their families,” said Ahmad.

He urged chief minister Nitish Kumar to clear the payment of government grants to private schools on account of enforcing the right to education (RTE) and taking admissions of poor students on 25% seats.

“Payment of RTE grants, amounting in several crores of rupees, to the qualified schools has been held up for the past four-five years at the district level. The CM must look into the issues and penalize officers responsible for this,” Ahmad said.