Over 1,000 pvt schools yet to set fees fixed by State Committee

Recently, notices were issued to 2,000 self-financing schools in the State, which did not appear before the fee determination committee, to report to the authorities to get their fee fixed.

However, about 900 private institutions appeared before the committee. A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that at present a total of 12,918 private schools are functioning in the State and about 64.81 lakh students were on rolls in these institutions.

Accordingly, after enacting ‘Tamil Nadu Schools Regulation of Collection of Fee’ Act, a committee, led by retired High Court judge, was constituted by the state government for the purpose of fixing fee for the private schools in the State.

“The committee has fixed fees for all the private schools for the year 2019-20 and 2020-2021 and the fixation orders have been sent to the respective mail identity of the schools,” the official said.

Stating that the fee fixation has been uploaded on the committee’s website, the official said all the schools were instructed to appear before the committee to get their fee fixed.

Complaints ofexcess fee from parents“However, so far, management of over 1,000 private schools did not appear before the committee members despite notices being issued to them. Moreover, we started to receive complaints from parents about excess collection of fees.” he said.

Pointing out that a last chance will be given to those who did not appear before the committee, the official said, “If they do not appear within the stipulated time, admission to those schools will be stopped from next academic year.”

The official said that in the academic year 2018-19, action was initiated against 51 private schools in the State, which had not fixed their fees for the previous academic session.