Dept fixes 15% cap on fee hike in pvt schools

BENGALURU: Spelling relief for parents of students, the education department has taken steps to regulate fees in private schools across the state. Tuition fee hike will be capped at 15% per year and schools will have to make the fee structure public by December 31.
A notification to this effect was issued by the primary and secondary education department on Friday.

This comes two years after the Karnataka Education Institutions (Classification, Regulation and Prescription of curricula etc,) (Amendment) Rules 2016 were introduced as part of the Siddaramaiah government's efforts to rein in private schools charging exorbitant fees.

The notification makes it mandatory for schools to disclose the following information by December 31 every year: fee structure for the ensuing academic year, audit report of the school's finances in the previous financial year which ended on March 31, details of teaching resources, results of public examinations and a statement showing computation and compliance of fee structure as per the department's rules. The school can't charge more fee than the sum disclosed.

The order has restricted fee increase, saying that tuition fee for the ensuing year to be collected from all students (except RTE quota) shouldn't be more than 15% over and above the amount charged during the current academic year.

The education department also stated that fee calculation should be made considering the normative total expenditure for the ensuing academic year, which should be computed based on the actual salary expenditure incurred on teaching and non-teaching staff, including outsourced staff and operational costs in the previous financial year.

The notification also re-attempts to penalize schools for fee violations. Institutions are supposed to pay a fine of Rs 10 lakh for charging exorbitant fee, a sum which has not been revised for 18 years, but the department hasn't been able to implement the rule.

Not just that. The draft notification also mandates schools not to levy additional amounts (above the fee) on students admitted under the RTE quota. This comes at a time when the RTE task force has been complaining to the department about some private schools charging fee for uniforms and text books.

The draft reiterates that school development fee cannot be levied on children availing the quota.