State promises to introduce school fee regulation bill in house today
State promises to introduce school fee regulation bill in house todayInu00a0what can be termed as the biggest victory so far for parents and NGOs fighting against arbitrary fee hikes in private schools, the government has agreed to introduce the School Fee Regulation Bill today in the state assembly. For the past seven days, parents of children studying in private schools, representatives of NGOs working in the education sector and teachers from private schools had been on a hunger strike at Azad Maidan in Mumbai, demanding the government bring in a law to regulate fee hikes and also revise teacher salaries in accordance with the Sixth Pay Commission.
The strike was started by 26 people; 10 fell ill and were hospitalised while the remaining 16 continued the strike. Yesterday, after the protesters had gone without food for a week, Education Minister Rajendra Darda finally agreed to meet them. Darda assured the parents that the new law, namely the School Fee Regulation Act, would be brought about by introducing the bill for it during the ongoing state assembly session and the government would do its best to get it passed as quickly as possible.
Vindicated: The government has accepted the demands of Pune parents,
sitting on a hungry strike seeking regulation of school fee. Fileu00a0picu00a0
Jayant Jain, who is president of the NGO Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE) and was part of the strike, could not hold back his tears when the decision was made to end the strike. "For months together we have been literally waging a war with the government and private unaided schools after getting numerous complaints from parents. We have even filed court cases and public interest litigations, but never have we achieved this success," said Jain. "I feel elated as finally the government has accepted our demands and all private schools will now be kept on a leash. No longer will they get to wreak havoc in parents' lives."
The striking parents were demanding that the School Fee Regulation Act be introduced with immediate effect and controls be paced over schools from this academic year so that they are not able to hike fees beyond a certain reasonable limit. They also wanted quality of teaching to improve and revised salaries for teachers.
Another demand was for action to be taken against schools that violate the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Sandip Chavan, a DY Patil School student's parent who was also on hunger strike, said he wanted to see the bill passed soon after the Darda's promise to introduce it today. "Once the bill is introduced, it will be subject to discussion, but I hope it doesn't take too long to pass," said Chavan.
"The Education Minister has promised to take action against schools that hike fees arbitrarily and indulge in profiteering. He will instruct the deputy director of education to take prompt action, and if things move slowly he will personally look into it."
Voices'The school fees of kids is our major concern. When we find the government is not concerned about parents who are fighting against fee hikes, it adds to our worries. School authorities are not concerned about how we pay the fees.
- Bobby Pawar, parent of a schoolkid
'Since the time my daughter has started going to school, we have been constantly thinking about the expensive education system. A large chunk of our income goes towards her studies and the government's casual attitude just shows that it is not interested in having a proper education system in the country
- Shweta Patnaik, parent of KG student
What does the BILL draft say?
What draft of School Fee Regulation Bill says:
For the first time, the state has decided to control school fee hikes and has also made profiteering a punishable offense. The draft of the School Fee Regulation Bill covers the following:
> There will be no upper limit for the fees any educational institution decides. The onus will be on the schools to justify their hikes with the expenditures they incur and the facilities they offer students
> The new act will have a wider reach and extends to pre-schools, schools, junior colleges as well as BEd and DEd colleges
> It instructs private unaided schools to pay revised salaries to teachers
> The institutions will have to inform parents 10 months in advance before announcing any fee hike, and they can implement it only after the approval of the PTA
> Whoever contravenes the provisions of the act will face imprisonment for one to three years or fine up to Rs 5 lakh, or both
