All School Parents’ Association (ASPA) has decided to send a delegation to State Education Minister Neera Yadav demanding regulation of fees hike in private schools. The delegation will hand a memorandum in order to implement the Jharkhand Education Tribunal (JET) (Amendment) Act 2017 regarding the same, the decision for which was taken in a meeting on Sunday.
The Act was implemented to enforce the law regarding the collection of fees by private schools in the State. The law was introduced in the Jharkhand Gazette on October 26, 2018 and was notified in the State on January 7, 2019. However, the association claims that nothing has been done yet for the implementation of this amendment.
The association also demands reimbursement to the parents from schools that have already started collecting fees according to fee hike on their own will.
The ASPA had already written to the Ranchi Deputy Commissioner, Rai Mahimapat Ray on June 21 regarding the issue of abrupt fees hike but because no action has been taken by the DC till date, the association has now decided to approach the minister.
The JET Amendment Act 2017 governs the fee hike regulations and has a provision to form an internal Parents- Teachers Association in every school to decide on the percentage of fees hike. Once fees hike is decided at the school level it will be sent to a district level committee headed by the DC for final approval.
“The DC’s committee and also committees at many schools have not been formed yet and no response from the DC has led us to take the issue forward to the Minister.
Most schools have ignored the guidelines by JET Amendment 2017 and implemented their own fee structure for the academic year of 2019-20. This has further accentuated the problem for parents,” said Ajay Rai, president of hte association.
The delay in the implementation has got the parents in despair.“The law has been issued since January 2019 and we are still being exploited at the will of the private schools with their fee hike due to gap in the administration. This issue needs to be immediately dealt with,” said Anju Choudhary, a parent with 2 children studying in private school.
The meeting under association Chairperson Ajay Rai included Manoj Singh, Ramesh Sahu, Nitesh Singh, Uttam Kumar and Jyoti Khalkho. With this move, the parents are hoping that law will be implemented with immediate force.