After the announcement of a standardised fee for private schools last week, Suresh Kumar S, Primary and Secondary Education Minister has said that he has formed committees consisting of education department officials to look into issues related to the standard fee set to be paid for private schools.
The minister said, "With the pandemic around and many parents having lost their jobs or getting half salaries, we had announced that the private schools, including aided and unaided, are supposed to take only 70 per cent of the tuition fees for the coming academic year, 2021-22. They are not supposed to charge a transport fee, library fee or any expenses related to their committees. Therefore, we have formed separate committees for six different zones of Bengaluru. It includes Bengaluru rural and urban areas. The committee formed for this purpose includes Education department's director, joint director, DDPI, DIET lecturer, DIET principal and a senior lecturer from the DIET department.
He further clarified that if parents or schools face any issues related to the fee payment, they can approach these committees and resolve the issue as per the guidelines set by the government. Similarly, separate committees have been formed in every district of Karnataka to address these issues. Earlier, Suresh Kumar had told that if the parents had already paid full fees to the schools, then the schools can adjust the amount for the coming academic year 2021-22 and charge only 70 per cent for the previous academic year 2019-2020. The government had to exercise its powers under the Right to Education (RTE) Act and also the Epidemic Diseases Management Act to fix the fee structure for this academic year.
The education department has also instructed the school management committees to allow parents to pay fees in installments or give them sufficient time to pay the fees in one go.
