Telangana Education Commission proposes Bill to regulate school and junior college fees

Telangana Education Commission proposes Bill to regulate private school fees, monitor education sector, and provide relief to parents.

Seven months after it was constituted, the Telangana Education Commission has proposed a Bill to regulate fees and monitor the private education sector in the State. The Bill proposes setting up of a Telangana Private School Fee Regulatory and Monitoring Commission to oversee the education sector and effective implementation of the goals marked out by the government of Telangana. 

The Bill promises relief to hassled parents of school-going children who are dogged by double-digit hike in fees every year. Instead of annual increase, it proposes twice a year hike linked to the Consumer Price Index. For the record, the CPI has been 5.5% over the past 10 years while the school fees have logged double-digit growth.

The proposed commission would be headed by a “retired judge of the High Court or Supreme Court or a retired officer from Indian Administrative Service”.

The proposed Bill aims to bring in transparency mandating a website sharing details about the fee structure and the charges that the schools are collecting. “Every private school/junior college should have its own website as a mandate and display the fee structure classified under Section 17 of this Act, the website should also have the details of school/ college recognition/ affiliation orders, teacher’s/ lecturer’s name, qualifications, subject-wise teachers list, salaries, class wise, medium wise strength etc,” the draft Bill says. 

The Bill also bars schools from doing business by hawking school uniforms or textbooks. “Private schools should not do business like selling school uniforms, textbooks, stationery etc. to the students and parents,” it says.

It also prohibits school managements from collecting additional fees under the labels of donation fee, building maintenance fee, books fee, uniform fee etc. that have become the norm in most private schools in the city and State.

While trying to regulate the fee, the commission gives leeway to the private institutions for the fee based on the location of the school/ junior college. The other factors for base fee include: “The cost and extent of the land where the school is located. Expenditure involving payment of salaries and other benefits to the staff. Reasonable amount for yearly salary increments. Expenditure related to rent payments, as well as for the upkeep of the building.”