School managements oppose draft rules on fee fixation

Say fees as per new formula meagre to run institutions

The Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) has opposed the draft rules issued by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), which will fix the formula for calculating fees in private, unaided schools in the state.

The draft rules have been issued to amend the Karnataka Educational Institutions (Regulation of Certain fees and Donations) Rules, 1999.

The KAMS, which has 1,900 member schools termed the draft rules as ‘unscientific’ and ‘impractical’. D Shashi Kumar, secretary, KAMS said that the fee fixed based on this formula will not be sufficient to cover the high cost of maintaining and running schools.

According to the draft rules, the total fee collected from all students will be the a sum of the expenditure on salary of teaching and non-teaching staff and a percentage of the same to cover maintenance and operation costs. The draft rules say that this percentage will be 50% for schools in gram panchayats and town panchayats, 60% for those in city municipal councils, 75% for those in municipal corporations other than Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and 100% for schools in BBMP limits.

“However, the rules also say that from this Normative Net Expenditure (NNE), reimbursement received from the government towards fee of students admitted under the RTE Act, fee collected for certificates, term fee, special development fee have to be subtracted. Though they have increased the percentage of maintenance fee from 30% to 100%, effectively, it is only 50%,” he explained. The association has also demanded that the fee collected for certificates and special development fee should be increased to Rs 100 and Rs 5,000 from the proposed Rs 50 and Rs 2,500, respectively.
 
“How can we be expected to provide quality education if we are not allowed to charge fee commensurate with the facilities we are providing,” asked Yogesh B K, secretary of a private unaided school in Nagarbhavi in Bengaluru. The management also runs a school which is affiliated to the CBSE board.

“The fee regulation for CBSE schools allow us to fix the fee without putting such a restrictive cap,” he added.

“We are not against regulation of fee but the rules have to be arrived at after discussions with private schools,” said Srivatsa HNM who is on the management board of Jnanadhara High School in Challakere, Chitradurga district. Members of several school managements were of the opinion that they should have been consulted and the practical reality of running schools should have been considered.