Having thoroughly failed in the past to curtail the ongoing continuous cartel of private schools breaching the set guidelines on school uniforms, sale of books, including fees hike, State School Education Minister Neera Yadav on Tuesday said that she was monitoring the present status and had asked the officials to submit a report by March 25 on the status of Fees Regulatory Act that was supposed to be drafted in 2011.

Yadav said that she had instructed the officials in the recent meeting to check the irregularities in the Act and delay in formation of district level committees as well to keep a tab on private schools functioning. “Recently, several irregularities have been found after discussing the matter with the officials on Fees Regulatory Act. Unfortunately, certain districts are yet to form the committee. Officials have been instructed to give a detail report of the functioning of the committee. The team has been formed,” said the Minister.

The monopoly of private schools in the name of re-admission charges, including sale and purchase of books, school uniforms from certain allocated shops and outlets only have benefited the private schools since long but on the other hand have overburdened the guardians.

However, in the Capital City, the committee formed under DC Manoj Kumar’s guidance has instructed all the private school principals to immediately inform the committee about the fees hike. “Fees regulation act for the State is yet to be implemented that can help to solve the problem to an extent. However, in Ranchi, no schools can increase their fees more than 15 per cent without the approval of district committee and parents signature. At present, we are following the CBSE guidelines only,” said Ranchi DC, Manoj Kumar.  

Majority of private schools in city are indulged in malevolent practice and are infringing the orders of the Central Board of Secondary School Examination (CBSE), Indian Certificate School Examination (ICSE) and the state education board on Fee Regulation Act.

On the other hand, several private school representatives have claimed that keeping uniformity in mind parents are asked to buy books and uniforms from certain outlets only. As far as fee hike is concerned they are not going to charge any additional amount from guardians without the consent of the district administration after the decision taken in January 2017.