FRC bypassed: Govt declares fees of schools

AHMEDABAD: The state government on Tuesday declared the fees for 238 schools; settling the fee structure and making it public actually falls within the remit of the Fee Regulatory Committee (FRC). The Ahmedabad Zone of the FRC covers North Gujarat and Kutch apart from Ahmedabad.
The announcement of the fee structure came in the form of a release issued in the name of education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama. Curiously, on Monday, the minister had emphasized the independence of the FRC and had said that the government had no role in declaring fees.

“Technical colleges of Gujarat have an FRC, which is headed by a former judge,” said an officer of the education department. “That committee has always declared fees without the government’s intervention. But the Ahmedabad zone committee chose to make the announcement through the government.”

The official said that the Ahmedabad zone committee wanted to play safe as there was a hue and cry after the FRC declared fees for 55 schools. As for Tuesday’s announcement, Chudasama’s statement said that the Ahmedabad zone had reduced the fees of 116 schools, with the reduction being as steep as Rs 40,000 in the case of 57 schools.

The schools that are aggrieved with the fee structure can approach the committee to appeal. The fee structure will be placed before the apex court for the final approval. The government said that the fees for 14 schools of Ahmedabad, 28 of Ahmedabad rural, and 28 of Gandhinagar — among others — had been declared. A school management member, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: “Why is the government silent on the fees of individual schools?” He said that if the government has announced that the fees of 116 schools have been reduced, it means that in the case of 122 schools, the FRC has either accepted the schools’ proposals or increased fees.