THE IMPRIMATUR GIVEN by President Pranab Mukherjee to the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation and Collection of Fees) Act, 2011 on March 21, has cheered parents in the state and particularly in Mumbai where they have been protesting the steep rise in tuition fees of private schools. Under provisions of the Act, fees ” including tuition, term, admission, deposit, examination and library ” in government-aided private schools will be regulated by the state government, and of unaided private schools by an executive committee comprising parents, teachers and school management representatives. The Act requires all unaided/independent private schools to constitute PTAs (Parent Teacher Associations) which will elect executive committees to approve tuition fee increases proposed by institutional managements. The PTA executive committee of each school will determine total payout by way of fees after considering location, infrastructure facilities, accreditation status, administration and maintenance expenditure and salaries paid to teaching and non-teaching staff. œDuring the past three-four years, many private schools especially those with an ˜international™ tag have raised tuition fees by more than 200 percent. Others have routinely increased fees by upto 50 percent per year making huge profits. The Act states that unless the difference between fees suggested by the school management and PTA executive committee is more than 15 percent, the PTA executive committee doesn™t come into the picture. Many schools have already misused this clause and raised fees without taking PTA consent. Moreover, parents are inadequately represented on PTA executive committees and all important posts are being held by school managements with parents hardly having a say in the matter, says Jayant Jain, president of the Mumbai-based Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE), which has been advocating a government appointed school fee committee after a Bombay high court order quashed a government resolution seeking to regulate fee hikes in private unaided schools in 2010. Arundhati Chavan, president of Parent Teachers Association United Forum, concurs. œWhile the Act can bring in some transparency, its success depends on how empowered are the PTA executive committees. Parents, who enjoy a good rapport with managements, are selected rather than elected to executive committees. Moreover, there is no grievance redressal forum for parents. It remains to be seen how much of an impact this Act really makes, says Chavan. Knowledgeable monitors of Maharashtra™s education scene as also most private school promoters have given a cautious welcome to the new legislation. For one, it has nullified the power of notoriously corrupt officials of the state government™s education ministry to determine the tuition fees of private unaided schools, and vested it in in-house PTAs. œParents want excellent infrastructure and facilities for their children without paying for them. Under the provisions of the Regulation and Collection of Fees Act, school managements will get opportunities to work with and make parents aware of how schools operate. Prima facie, the provisions of the Act are balanced and fair and have devolved the onus of negotiating fees upon parties directly involved in children™s education ” parents and teachers, says Rohan…
