New admission? School may charge fee at will

LUCKNOW: Is your child ready to go to school? Be ready to shell out as much the school demands for the first time admission, and every time you decided to change the school. In a discussion on implementation of Uttar Pradesh Swavitt Poshit Swatantra Vidyalaya (regulation of fees) Ordinance 2018, held on Tuesday, the UP government decided to put no cap on the admission fees charged by schools from new students.

The discussion held by deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma with the school managements of Lucknow division also decided upon a formula for fee hike of existing students. The hike will either be the percentage increase in annual national Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 5% or the percentage increase in teachers’ salary, whichever is lower.

Consider this. If the CPI increase in March, 2018 stands at 4.28%, then the unaided private school desirous of increasing the fee would add 5% to it, thereby making it an increase of 9.28%. But if in that school, the percentage hike in teachers’ salary is 7%, then the fee hike of students’ will no more than 7%.

Formula for fee hike applies to all pvt schools

On the other hand, if the CPI + 5% is lower than the increase in teachers’ salary, then the former will be applicable.

The formula for fee hike applies to all private schools, including minority institutions, affiliated to CBSE, ICSE and the UP Board of Secondary Education. The ordinance affects all private schools that have enrolled students in classes 1 to 12 and charge more than Rs 20,000 per annum as fees. The schools would be penalized for violation of rules. A fine of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh will be levied on schools for their first and second violations while a third strike will lead to derecognition.