Parents set fee questions for schools, gear up for protest

NOIDA: In an effort to make schools accountable to Uttar Pradesh Self-Financed Independent Schools (Fee Regulation) Act, 2018, an organisation of parents has drafted a letter, the format of which could be used to question the schools on measures taken to implement the fee Act.
In a meeting held on Sunday, All Noida School Parents’ Association (ANSPA) distributed the draft letter to parents so that from Monday onwards their representatives could raise the issue at respective schools. The parents’ body wants the schools to answer as to why they have failed to implement Section 7 of the Fee Regulation Act. This particular section makes it obligatory for schools to disclose their fee structure since 2016 on their website commensurate with the increase in staff salary during the same period.

According to ANSPA, none of the 139 private schools in Noida or Greater Noida has so far put up the necessary declaration on their websites.

“This declaration is important because the permissible fee hike as per the Fee Regulation Act is based on the fee structure of the academic session of 2016-17. The schools are permitted to hike the fees by 7-8% with that year’s fee as base, which too should be justified by salary increments offered to teachers. We have distributed the letter format to all parents on Sunday. From Monday onwards, parents would start asking the schools to disclose this data,” K Arunachalam, general secretary, ANSPA, said.

According to ANSPA, some schools have simply restructured or manipulated their fee structure, but none have genuinely implemented a roll back which should have effectively given a relief of nearly Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 per year.