State Govt Announces Rules
The state government has clarified that schools charging fees higher than the amount decided by the fee regulatory committee, will have to reimburse double the excess amount to the student.
Education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, who announced the rules on Tuesday, said that the government has also stated in the rules that CBSE, ICSE and state board schools can be subjected to inspection by the state government.
Chudasama said that the new rules say that schools charging fees lower than the cap set by the government will also be scrutinized, to check if schools have raised fees exorbitantly, to exploit the upper limit set. The state government has decided that the upper limit for fees at primary schools will be Rs 15,000, at secondary schools Rs 25,000 and at higher secondary schools Rs 27,000, applicable from the academic year 2017-18.
Chudasama said the new rules, to check on payments to teachers and non-tea ching staff, asks schools to maintain records of income tax deducted or Form 16s gi ven to employees by the school. The Fee Regulation Committee (FRC) can ask the principal or the mana gement for books of acco unt.
The FRC, according to Chudasama, has been given special powers to decide fe es and ensure that the ma nagement does not indulge in profiteering. The FRC will be respon sible for ensuring that the education imparted is in accor dance with guidelines and rules set by the respective boards.
Chudasama declared that the fee regulatory committee will decide on the new fee structure, in 90 days from when schools makes applications. There are 9,000 primary schools in the state, and 3,000 each of secondary and higher secondary levels. Sunaina Tomar, principal secretary for education, said minority run institutes are not covered under the the new law.She however said, as per the definition of a minority institute, only such institutes which have 50% minority students will be eligible for the exemption. For ex ample, if an institute is a Jain minority institute, 50% of its students should either be from the Jain community or communities specified in the minority list.
Source – Times Of India – Ahmedabad – 26th April 2017
