The government will come up with new fee structure for schools and junior colleges in the State by April-end and the first step towards that was taken on Thursday by conducting surprise checks on 10 such private educational institutions in each district, said Aluru Sambasiva Reddy, secretary of the Andhra Pradesh School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission.

At a press conference here on Thursday, Mr. Sambasiva Reddy said the government was getting information/data about the infrastructure, staff position, fee structure, number of students and expenditure on each student. A team of two persons of Mandal Education Officer rank would visit one institution for the entire day and cross-check all facilities on these parameters in a prescribed pro forma of the Commission, Mr. Sambasiva Reddy said.

Any private educational institution following any stream or syllabus of any board of education, would come under the purview of the commission. If they violate the norms, penalties or suspension of licence would be the punishment, he said. The teacher-student ratio, the amount spent on each student vis-a-vis the amount of fee collected from each student would be taken into account in rural, semi-urban and metro cities and grading of schools done depending on quality of teaching staff and infrastructure.

While some schools in Anantapur district were inspected by officials from Kurnool, a similar exercise was taken up in 130 schools all over the State and on Friday, 10 junior colleges in each district would be inspected and this would become a year-long routine from now on, he said.

Training for teachers

Meanwhile, Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh visited a training centre in Bukkarayasamudram mandal to witness the conduct of refresher programme for school teachers. The Minister said one lakh teachers would be trained in English teaching skills before the beginning of the next academic year.

A bridge course would be organised for students from Classes 4 and above and starter course for students from Classes 1 to 3, who will learn the language for the first time.

Singanamala MLA Jonnalagadda Padmavathi and Madakasira MLA M. Thippeswamy accompanied the Minister.