TN publishes fee structure of schools on website

CHENNAI: Bowing to the demands of parents and activists, the state government has published the fee structure details of all unaided schools in the state, as prescribed by Justice Govindarajan Fee Committee on Thursday.

The details of 10,233 schools have been put up on the state government website www.tn.gov.in in the What's New' section. Names of the 701 schools that did not respond to the questionnaire from the government asking for their current fee details, based on which the committee had made the recommendations, were also put up. The committee had said that as these schools had not disclosed the relevant details, they should not collect any fees this year.

On Monday, a legal notice was sent to the Tamil Nadu government by State Platform for Common School System, which asked it to publish the fee structure of all schools on the website, saying that "unless parents are made aware of the fee structure ordered by the said committee for the schools, they would not be in a position to file any complaint against the schools violating the orders of the high court."

Parents of students in various city schools have been protesting against schools for several months now, asking them to reveal the fee structure prescribed by the government-appointed Fee Determination Committee. On Wednesday, parents of CSI Jessie Moses School in Kilpauk, CSI Bains School in Anna Nagar and Alpha Matriculation School in CIT Nagar approached the chief educational officer and requested him to insist that the respective schools put up the fee structures on
the notice board.

P B Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of the State Platform for Common School System, said, "Now parents have access to the fee structure. But not all parents will be able to access the Internet to get these details. To make it available to all stakeholders, the school education department can release a booklet containing these details. It has been done before. In 1994 the department released a directory of schools that were recognised in the interest of students."

The Madras High Court has ruled that schools that have collected fees in addition to that prescribed by the committee should consider the excess amount as deposit till the committee releases the revised fee structure in four months. As many as 6,500 schools in the state had objected to the fees prescribed by the committee and applied for a revision.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/TN-publishes-fee-structure-of-schools-on-website/articleshow/6789601.cms

To download the document click on
http://www.tn.gov.in/departments/sedu/priv_Sch_Fee.pdf