Gujarat government has got several complaints from parents that private schools demand excess fees and this has become now unfair business. Many of the schools sell out books of costly private publications as well as uniforms and many more items from the schools. There are schools demanding donations as well as every year fees hike which is beyond the expectations of parents.
Government decided to do something and Mr. Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Education minister announced this bill. Parents are happy now as government has finalised the fees structure that is Rs.15K for primary, Rs.25K for secondary and higher secondary (normal stream), Rs. 27K for higher secondary (Sci. Stream). There is a condition for schools that if they feel that the fees should be more than the prescribed fees, they must face the fees regulatory committee and after evaluating and assessing everything like infrastructure, facilities, finance etc the committee will finalise the fees and that will remain constant for three years. Committee will go through the details like income and expenditure of the schools. Schools can ask for higher fees according the facilities and standards.
Circular of 7April, 2017 states that parents should pays the three months fees of the school and after the committee's recommendation the paid fees will be adjusted by the school.
There are schools who have not maintained their financial matters clearly or accepted donations or earning maximum profit, not paying proper salaries to the teachers may face the consequences. But the schools who have transactions clearly and no donations are taken as well all the fees are accepted only through cheques and aspiring to raise the fees for future prospects may gain the favour of the committee for the justifiable fees.
There are lot of confusions in making this bill in hurry. The announcement was done first and then government started working on the issues. Elections are approaching this year so that can be one of the reason to win public faith and get more votes. There are different education boards like CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE, IB etc and all these boards have their own bye-laws and structure. For example Gujarat board says that in primary teacher class ratio must be 1:1 where CBSE says it must be 1:1.5. In Gujarat board primary school, number of teachers for classes 1 to 8 will be 8 where in CBSE school for classes 1 to 8, number of teachers will be 12. If we calculate the budget of a primary school according to the Gujarat board's norms, strength of the class, teachers ratio etc, the school will face loss if the fees is Rs.15000/-. Gujarat government needs to do expense more than Rs.30K on a child studying in government school then how can they fix Rs.15K for private schools?
Every parent wants his child to study in a standard school and for that he is ready to work hard and pay whatever the fees is charged by the schools. Schools started competitions and more schools came up with new ideas and concepts. IIT, JEE, NEET etc etc as if the child will become super brain. Instead of studies parents wanted facilities like AC classrooms, smart boards, competitions and various activities in the school itself because parent doesn't have enough time to spend with the child. Parents want to earn money for the child's future and so started paying huge fees and donations. Values, morals etc are needed to nurture the child, family needs to built up the character of the child but they do not have time so the whole responsibility is of school. That's why they search the best schools.
After demonetisation, the control over the cash transactions and black money is seen everywhere. That's why most of the people started facing problems and stopped unnecessary expenses. Why should we buy so expensive private publications books? Why the stationery and other materials from schools? Parents started grudging and that was valid too as some of the schools started doing business.
Government has taken this step but hastily so the effectiveness of this bill creates a question mark. Though we trust that the committee members would do fair job as retired judges, IPS officers and chartered accountants are the members of this committee. As soon as this bill passed some of the parents started making groups against the school and media also started portraying schools as profit making business and management as mafias. Parents have a misconception that Rs.15K, Rs25K & Rs.27K are the final fees. If a school is providing good facilities, better education, good salaries to the teachers, play ground and activities then school can charge fees more than the amount mentioned. School will have to justify the fees and present the proofs to the committee and committee can grant the fees expected by the school. In this case fees can be raised according to the need of the school.
Some parents started whatsapp discussions and creating agitation against the schools, some are worried if the fees gets lowered, the standard of the school quality will also become average or below average. Teachers may not get proper salaries and facilities will be less. The education standards in schools will be poor. These worries are because there are no proper guidelines in the bills that if school is found guilty and action is taken on school what will happen to the staff members? If management does not agree the fees decided by the committee and close down the school, what would be the future of the students studying in that school? These are the questions disturbing people who are associated with schools.
Most of the CBSE schools are worried because this year board has closed CCE and pattern is changed. NCERT books are made compulsory, GPS, CCTV and Lady conductor in school buses are mandatory. Before getting into the new structure this bill has created more confusions. Gujarat education ministry has to consider all the boards and their systems but this bill suggests that the value of peanut and cashewnut is same. Here government is not clear, they want to do something by what parents would be happy and schools would learn a lesson. District Education Office has collected the data from the private schools but they can do only clerical job, identifying the quality of the education and standards as well justifying the schools must be the skill of these officers.
There are some great schools and hopefully these schools must not suffer through this bill. There are many loopholes in the system and political leaders always try to get the benefits of any situations. Parents must become wise enough to understand what can be done if schools do injustice and schools must understand if parents become nuisance and do not allow schools to run smoothly.
Justice to schools, justice to teachers, justice to parents and justice to students must be awarded and government must feel it as a moral responsibility.
There are lot of confusions in making this bill in hurry. The announcement was done first and then government started working on the issues. Elections are approaching this year so that can be one of the reason to win public faith and get more votes. There are different education boards like CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE, IB etc and all these boards have their own bye-laws and structure. For example Gujarat board says that in primary teacher class ratio must be 1:1 where CBSE says it must be 1:1.5. In Gujarat board primary school, number of teachers for classes 1 to 8 will be 8 where in CBSE school for classes 1 to 8, number of teachers will be 12. If we calculate the budget of a primary school according to the Gujarat board's norms, strength of the class, teachers ratio etc, the school will face loss if the fees is Rs.15000/-. Gujarat government needs to do expense more than Rs.30K on a child studying in government school then how can they fix Rs.15K for private schools?
Every parent wants his child to study in a standard school and for that he is ready to work hard and pay whatever the fees is charged by the schools. Schools started competitions and more schools came up with new ideas and concepts. IIT, JEE, NEET etc etc as if the child will become super brain. Instead of studies parents wanted facilities like AC classrooms, smart boards, competitions and various activities in the school itself because parent doesn't have enough time to spend with the child. Parents want to earn money for the child's future and so started paying huge fees and donations. Values, morals etc are needed to nurture the child, family needs to built up the character of the child but they do not have time so the whole responsibility is of school. That's why they search the best schools.
After demonetisation, the control over the cash transactions and black money is seen everywhere. That's why most of the people started facing problems and stopped unnecessary expenses. Why should we buy so expensive private publications books? Why the stationery and other materials from schools? Parents started grudging and that was valid too as some of the schools started doing business.
Government has taken this step but hastily so the effectiveness of this bill creates a question mark. Though we trust that the committee members would do fair job as retired judges, IPS officers and chartered accountants are the members of this committee. As soon as this bill passed some of the parents started making groups against the school and media also started portraying schools as profit making business and management as mafias. Parents have a misconception that Rs.15K, Rs25K & Rs.27K are the final fees. If a school is providing good facilities, better education, good salaries to the teachers, play ground and activities then school can charge fees more than the amount mentioned. School will have to justify the fees and present the proofs to the committee and committee can grant the fees expected by the school. In this case fees can be raised according to the need of the school.
Some parents started whatsapp discussions and creating agitation against the schools, some are worried if the fees gets lowered, the standard of the school quality will also become average or below average. Teachers may not get proper salaries and facilities will be less. The education standards in schools will be poor. These worries are because there are no proper guidelines in the bills that if school is found guilty and action is taken on school what will happen to the staff members? If management does not agree the fees decided by the committee and close down the school, what would be the future of the students studying in that school? These are the questions disturbing people who are associated with schools.
Most of the CBSE schools are worried because this year board has closed CCE and pattern is changed. NCERT books are made compulsory, GPS, CCTV and Lady conductor in school buses are mandatory. Before getting into the new structure this bill has created more confusions. Gujarat education ministry has to consider all the boards and their systems but this bill suggests that the value of peanut and cashewnut is same. Here government is not clear, they want to do something by what parents would be happy and schools would learn a lesson. District Education Office has collected the data from the private schools but they can do only clerical job, identifying the quality of the education and standards as well justifying the schools must be the skill of these officers.
There are some great schools and hopefully these schools must not suffer through this bill. There are many loopholes in the system and political leaders always try to get the benefits of any situations. Parents must become wise enough to understand what can be done if schools do injustice and schools must understand if parents become nuisance and do not allow schools to run smoothly.
Justice to schools, justice to teachers, justice to parents and justice to students must be awarded and government must feel it as a moral responsibility.
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