BE READY TO PARTICIPATE IN DHARNA ON SUNDAY 09 OCTOBER 2011 AT RAJGHAT FOR REFORMS IN SCHOOL EDUCATION 

AIPA extended core committee has today decided to hold a Peaceful Dharna on Sunday 09.10.2011 at Rajghat, New Delhi  from 10 am to 1 pm demanding

(i) Upgradation of all Govt Schools all over the country to the level of Central Schools,

(ii) Enactment of a Central Law to Regulate Fees in Unaided Private Schools,

(iii) Resolutions by all State Assemblies in favour of the Bringing Central law to Regulate Fees in Unaided Private Schools and

(iv) Initiation of criminal action against the all the unaided schools having been indicted by the recent ‘CAG Report on top 25 unaided schools’.

Plans to have this protest across the country near respective state assembly's.

Explain why panel on school fee hike not notified yet: HC to Govt

NEW DELHI: Accusing the state government of deliberate delay in empowering a Delhi high court-appointed panel tasked with carrying out audit of private schools, a parents' association on Friday moved HC, seeking implementation of its orders.

The association blamed the government of being slack in notifying the committee, and alleged that it had not even begun the job of providing the committee with manpower to serve its purpose.

A division bench of Justice A K Sikri and Justice Siddharth Mridul issued notice to the government, seeking its reply by September 9. Earlier, the same bench had issued directions to set up a committee headed by former judge Anil Dev Singh to audit the accounts of each of the schools to ascertain if the hike was required. The bench authorized the committee to scrutinize the accounts of minority schools, too. That order had come on a PIL, which alleged that despite CAG's indictment of 25 private schools for accounting malpractices, including faking losses, the city government had allowed them to hike tuition fee.

"If the committee finds that the hike was not required, the schools are bound to return the money to students with 9% interest," the bench had said in a 143-page verdict on August 12. The committee also comprises J S Kochar, a chartered accountant, and an official from the Directorate of Education, to be nominated by the Delhi chief secretary.

Counsel for the parents, Ashok Aggarwal, told the court he is apprehensive about the committee facing resistance and non co-operation from the state government akin to the Justice Santosh Duggal Committee, which had led to "great injustice to lakhs of hapless parents". He urged HC to fast-track the process of notification of the committee so that audit of schools could be carried out to verify if hike in fee by them is justified.

In its judgment, the court had also suggested to the city government to create a permanent regulatory authority, either by amending the Education Act or by enacting a new legislation, to resolve the issue of periodic hikes in tuition fee. It also suggested the Central government to frame a national policy on fees for unaided schools.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Explain-why-panel-on-school-fee-hike-not-notified-yet-HC-to-Govt/articleshow/9842566.cms

One more school harasses Parents in Hyderabad

http://www.sakshi.com/ | 22nd June, 2011

Sakshi | Hyderabad Edition | 4th June, 2011

http://sakshi.com/main/FullStory.aspx?catid=168788&subcatid=7&Categoryid=3

New Act to regulate private school fees - The Times of India

HYDERABAD: The state government has decided to come out with a new Act that would prevent private schools from increasing their fees every academic year. K Parthasarathi, minister for secondary education , announced on Thursday that following the example of Tamil Nadu, the state government was thinking of enacting an Act that would regulate the fees in private institutions in the state.

The Act will also lay out rules that will have to be followed by the secondary education department while granting recognition to private schools. The state's initiative for the new Act is part of the mandate of the Right to Education (RTE) Act that stipulates new legislation to control private schools. Also, a high court order issued in 2010 had directed the department to come up with fresh rules of fee regulation.

The government had a year ago issued an order (GO Ms No: 91) regulating the fee structure. However, private schools secured the high court stay on the GO. The court, however, in August last year directed the school education department to form new rules from 2011-12 academic year.

NO MORE FEE WOES
Toeing the example of Tamil Nadu, AP wants to enact a new Act to regulate fees in private schools The new Act will lay down rules for recognition of schools too AP's initiative is part of the mandate of the Right to Education Act Last year, AP tried to regulate the fees, but school managements secured a stay from the HC The court asked the state to form new rules from the 2011-12 academic year Child rights NGOs want the new rules to be enforced across the board, including corporate and international schools


Parents welcome govt's move to check fee hike
Hyderabad: The government's move to come out with a new Act to prevent private schools from increasing fees every academic year, has brought new hope to parents wary of the annual hike.

"The court had directed the school education department to come out with new rules as the old GO was issued in a hurry and had several flaws. If the government is planning to come out with new regulations before the commencement of the next academic year, many parents will be relieved," said Kamal Malliramani, member, Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA). According to HSPA records, several city schools have already hiked their fee structure by 10 per cent to 50 per cent for the coming academic year. "If a new legislation is put in place, there will be some amount of fear among private schools and unjustified fee-hike might stop," said Malliramani.

HSPA said the state government should force the schools to make their fee structure a public document like in Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, private school managements said that they would welcome the move only if fee regulation is introduced across the board. "No schools including international and corporate schools should be exempted from regulation," said Srinivas Reddy, convener, Recognised Schools' Managements' Association.

Some child rights NGOs, however, said the government should also introduce provisions regulating the salaries of teachers in the new Act. "The Act should be aimed at regulating private schools and not just focus on fee structure," said Achuyta Rao, president, child rights NGO, Bala Sangham .

New Act to regulate private school fees - The Times of India

CAG report exposes greediness of Private schools.

We've believed & have been vocal in many forums that most school are practising schooling as money minting business, run under the societies act & accredited to many bodies with almost no compliance to any of the clauses of the laws.

We've been raising our voice & did see some support from Government as well as High Court, but lost out in the confusion there upon. New academic session is starting in next few months/weeks, all schools have raised the fee for the next academic session without any proper reasoning nor fear of anyt one.

CBSE on 22nd Feb, 2011 has released a circular to all its affiliated schools across India clearly stating that they can't hike fee's at their whims & fancies, but follow the process. Who would ever say any legitimate raise in fee is a hike ? We're only objecting to the practises being followed by greedy managements hiking fee's for no reasons, just to fill in their bags !

Click below & read the CAG report for your self, which talks about the audit findings on schools in NCR reagion. Mind its no different else where in India.

http://saiindia.gov.in/cag/sites/default/files/study_reports/Final_Books_agcr.pdf

When Tamil nadu government went ahead on defining the school fee, school wise after audit, similar findings were found. They went ahead unlike any other State Government & dictated the fee schools need to collect. This was done with no intrusion to a private enterprise, but to make sure schooling is not commercialised. This was the very basis on which our High Court upheld the order in favour of GoAP & Parents last August. Today there are many such cases pending with HC or State Governments in Maharastra, Goa, Haryana, UP, Uttaranchal, MP etc states across India.

Time for us to demand what is right or in pure commercial terms "what is true value of money we're paying for". Mind you, we're not demanding out of greed or frustration but to make sure the education (basic right of a child) is within the reach of common man in India - today, tomorrow & fr ever.

Your support alone can make this happen.

Demand for what is right for your children

Join, Spread & Raise your voice !

CBSE circular to Educational Institutions on Fee Hikes

Ministers response to the school fee article in Sakshi on 14th Feb, 2011

Sakshi | 15Feb2011 | Page6 | www.sakshi.com

Sakshi | 14Feb2010 | Page 6 | http://www.sakshi.com/

Andhra Jyothy | 18th January, 2011 | Hyderabad Edition | Page 5

As govt sits on HC order, schools in city hike fee

Hyderabad: The academic year 2011-12 could leave a bigger hole in the pockets of city parents as schools are expected to hike fee, with the high court directive on regulation of fees in private schools gathering dust with the government. Several schools are gearing up to announce a 10-50 per cent fee hike from the coming academic year.

While several schools have already communicated to the parents their fee hike decision orally hike, others like Meridian have even sent out circulars. Chirec and others have gone a step ahead and uploaded their revised fee structure on their websites. This even as the school education department is sitting on the court directive to monitor fee hike.

Parents rue that the state government has failed to keep its p ro m - ise of checking undue rise in the fee structure. “The GO Ms No 91 was challenged in the court by parents and the judge ruled in our favour. Though the school education department was given the complete responsibility of keeping tabs on the fee, orders were not followed even three months after the judgment,” said Kamal Malliramani, member, Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA).

According to parents, the new admissions to some schools for the 2011-12 academic year have been done as per the revised fee. “In HPS Nacharam and Mahendera Hills the fee structure for new admissions is 25 per cent higher than that of the previous years. And the schools have orally communicated to the parents the decision to increase the fee for old students by 40 to 50 per cent,” said M Ravi Kumar, a member of HSPA.

'Move to hike school fee should be checked now’
Officials of the school education department said they would act on the court’s order before the beginning of the next academic year. Parents said this should be done before March when schools would announce their new fee structures.

Schools on their part say there is nothing amiss in the fee hikes announced for the next academic year. “Since there has been no follow up of the court order, we are well within our rights to take the approval of the school managing committee and increase the fee. If parents have a problem, they can directly approach the school,’’ said Usha Reddy, principal, Meridian School.

As per the court orders issued on August 2010, the fee structure of the schools had to be decided by the director of school education. The order further stated that the fee structure decided by the DSE would not be raised for a period of three years. The state government was also asked to emulate the Tamil Nadu government’s policy where the fee structure of every school was systematically audited.

Meanwhile, apart from the fee hike, schools seem to have also found other ways of filling their coffers. The so-far optional mess facility has now become compulsory the annual charges for which are Rs 14,000. In some schools bus facility is a must for all students whether they need it or not.According to parents, the total fee hike across schools is expected to range from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000.