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Consult parents before revising fees, schools told

Now, educational institutions cannot announce hike mid-session
Last Updated 14 December 2009, 17:45 IST
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Informing the Rajya Sabha about this decision, Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purandeshwari said the affiliation bye-laws of the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination has prescribed that fees charged should be commensurate with the facilities provided by the institution.

Replying in the negative to a question whether the government could consider it legitimate for various private schools to charge the fee “arbitrarily” from guardians, the minister said “in case a student leaves the school for such compulsion as transfer of parents or for health reason or in case of death of the student before completion of the session, pro-rata return of quarterly/term/annual fees should be made.”

It was also categorically mentioned that no capitation fee or voluntary donations for gaining admission in the school or for any other purpose should be charged or collected in the name of the school. “In case of such malpractices, the board may take drastic action leading to disaffiliation of the school,” she said.

The minister also informed the House that the government had decided to set up 6,000 model schools at the block level at the rate of one school per block as benchmarks of excellence. Out of these, 2,500 schools are to be set up in public-private partnership mode in blocks other than educationally backward blocks. The modalities for setting up of these schools are yet to be finalised.

In response to another question, the minister admitted that a whopping 42 per cent of the posts for professors in Central universities were vacant. The state universities have fared no better with a similar percentage of posts lying vacant for the readers.
The percentage of vacancies even for the lecturers in Central universities was 29 per cent with the figure going up to 33 per cent in State universities.

While 34 per cent of the readers’ posts are vacant in Central universities, suitable candidates were not available to fill 19 per cent of the professors’ posts in the state institutions.
According to the HRD Ministry, one of the important reasons for posts lying vacant in state universities was the ban on recruitment to posts in states “due to lack of funds.”
“Both in respect of Central universities as well as State universities, it may be generally stated that teaching as a career has been unable to attract suitable candidates due to comparatively more attractive remuneration in the other avenues in a growing economy,” the minister said.

On the board
*Fees charged should be commensurate with the facilities provided by the institution
*No capitation fees or voluntary donations for gaining admission to school
*6,000 model schools to be set up at block level
*42 per cent of the posts for professors in Central varsities vacant
*29 per cent of lecturers’ posts in Central varsities are vacant

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(Published 14 December 2009, 17:44 IST)

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