9,000 private schools yet to finalize fee structure

JAIPUR: Around 9,000 private schools have yet to finalize fees under the Rajasthan Private Schools Fee Act which enables a joint committee between school administration and parents to decide school fees.
The failure is due to dispute between the parents and school administrations and litigations leading to the delay in deciding fees. The Act says that a 10-member committee will decide the fees which include five parents, three teachers, one principal and one from the management and fees have to be determined six months before the start of academic session. As per the Act, the schools concerned have missed the deadline as the new academic session is set to start in many schools from April.

State education minister Vasudev Devnani said that out of 33,000 private schools, 24,000 have decided the fees and uploaded it on the portals. He cleared that schools which will not decide the fees will not get the reimbursement on account of RTE admissions. "The remaining schools should fasten the process to avoid any action as per the act," said Devnani.

The act says that every school has to form a School Level Fee Committee (SLFC) for deciding the fees. The school management will propose the fees before the parents which will negotiate it. In case the committee fails to decide the fees, the school will refer the matter to the divisional free regulatory committee which will act an arbitrator.

"Many of our concerned schools are struggling to decide the fees due to the dispute. In most of these cases, parents who refused the fee proposal fail to understand that like they expect the annual increment, out teaching and non-teaching staff also expect the same. Matter of several schools in pending before the regulatory committee," said Kishan Mittal, secretary of Swayamsewi Sansthan.

Close to 100 schools from Rajsamand has challenged the act in the court. "The state counsel has submitted that till the judgement comes they are agreeing for us to maintain the status quo. It has been challenged on grounds of rights given to the private institutions," said a school director from Rajsamand.

While in most of the elite schools the fee has been decided without any dispute. Some schools took several rounds of negotiating with the parents convince them on the fees proposed by them.