The Department of Public Instructions has sought legal opinion on its directive to private unaided schools for publishing their fee structure. The measures comes in the wake of Associated Management for Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka informing the government that they have obtained a stay from the High Court of Karnataka on publishing fee structure for next academic year.
Dr K G Jagadeesha, Commissioner of Public Instruction told DH that the the private schools association had submitted a representation saying it has obtained stay from the high court publishing fee details on the website. “We have sought legal opinion for further action in this regard.”
As per the information available from the department, out of the over 19,000 schools affiliated to various boards in state, only 3,000 have uploaded the fee details for next academic year. The last date for uploading the details were extended twice. The deadline was first set at December 31, 2019 and it was later extended to January 31, 2020.
While extending the deadline second time, the department had warned the schools of legal action if they fail to publish the fee structure for 2020-21 academic
year.
Schools were directed to publish fee under “Know My School” link in the department website. “During June 2019 an order was issued mandating publishing of fee for the next academic year’s fee and also the performance of schools in SSLC exams. These details had to be uploaded before December 31. Based on this order, circulars were issued asking schools to publish the details,” an official from the department said.
Along with the fee details schools must also upload the audit report of previous financial year. The department has provided a format for fee under three heads tuition fee, term fee and third is special development fee.
According to a government notification, the fee has to be calculated on the basis of the staff salary plus other expenditures divided by number of children in the school. The schools are not allowed to increase the fee by more than 15% every year. The maintenance fee is capped at Rs 2,500/- per annum.
General Secretary of Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, D Shashi Kumar said that the association was not refusing to declare the fee. “We are prepared to do so if the issues raised by us are addressed. Several cases are pending in the high court regarding fee issue,” he said.