Hyderabad, August 09: The Parent Associations Coordination Committee (PACC) today demanded that the State Government plug certain loopholes in the orders issued by the School Education Department two days ago on regulation of fee structure in private unaided schools.
Addressing a press conference here, PACC convenor Muneeruddin Mujahid, co-convenor S Govinda Rajulu and members A Ramesh and Rambabu said there was no mention in the orders about constituting a governing body in each school which was very much needed for parents to convey their views and problems to managements. The governing body should be represented by 10 members (with equal number of men and women) from parents’ side.
According to GO 1 of 1994, only one educated mother is allowed in the governing body and a majority of the other members are from management side, they said. Further, there should be an independent machinery to monitor the functioning of the governing bodies, they felt.
The provisions related to fee hike were also self-contradictory in the latest GO. While it was mentioned that fee hike can be made once in three years, another provision allowed fee revision every year based on the consumer price index. Alleging that the second provision was incorporated only to covertly fulfil the interests of private schools, PACC leaders demanded withdrawal of the said clause.
The GO mentioned that private schools should stick to the old fee structure for the current academic year, but most of the schools had already collected the hiked fee. There was no mention in the order about returing the extra fee to the parents, they pointed out and demanded that the government instruct the schools to refund the excess fee collected.
–Agencies–