AHMEDABAD: The Fee Regulation Committee of the Ahmedabad zone declared the fee structure, on Friday, for the schools that had presented fee proposals. The committee has reduced fees by up to 36% of the figures proposed by the schools. Only in the case of DAV International, Ahmedabad, has the fee been raised by Rs 542 over what the school had proposed, for the
HSC science stream.
The fees declared by the committee for 170-odd schools ranged from Rs 14,000 to Rs 82,500 per annum. However, several prominent schools such as Prakash Higher Secondary, Udgam School for Children, Delhi Public School, and
St Kabir have not yet presented fee proposals to the committee.
Sources in the committee said that the fee structure has to be approved by the Supreme court. The next hearing in the
Supreme Court is scheduled for April 18. Under the Gujarat Self-financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017, the government had capped annual fees at Rs 15,000 for primary schools, Rs 25,000 for secondary schools, and Rs 27,000 for higher secondary schools barring the science stream. For the science stream, the cap was set at Rs 30,000 per annum.
The government had stated that schools which wanted to charge fees that breached the limit set by the Act had to file an application seeking permission to increase fees. Other schools had to file an affidavit affirming that they were adhering to the caps.
The committee has accepted the proposals of 24 schools and has not changed the fees proposed. Officials said that in the case of the HSC science stream in DAV School, the proposed fee was Rs 44,458; but the committee cleared Rs 45,000.
The officials said that the committee has been consistent in reducing fees across sections. For example, in the case of Red Bricks, Satellite, the proposed fees ranged from Rs 85,600 to Rs 1.18 lakh; the committee fixed the range at Rs 64,200 to Rs 82,500. That’s a 25-30% reduction.
Interestingly, many schools had proposed more fees for the secondary sections than for the higher secondary sections. For example, Global Mission International School, Godhavi, proposed Rs 51,820 for the secondary section and Rs 30,000 and Rs 36,000 for the higher secondary general stream and the science stream respectively.
