Bhopal: The government passed MP private school fees regularity bill in the assembly on Monday. Now, private schools will not be able to raise fees by more than 10 percent. Also, they will not be able to seek donations. They will be penalised if they do so.
The minister of state for school education Deepak Joshi presented the bill in the assembly in the absence of Congress, the main opposition party. Joshi said that the government is committed to providing bread, house and education to the citizens of the state.
“There have been complaints for long that the private schools raise fees without any reason and extort money in the name of providing other facilities. To sort out the problem, a draft was prepared with help of private school owners, educationalist and parents,” he said.
He said that the schools are taking money in the name of tuition, library, sports, laboratory, computer, caution money, examination and other fees for which there was none to monitor the issue. “Since the establishment of the state, there was no regulatory authority in the state to monitor the fees of these schools. The bill will help to regulate the fees and also to improve the educational quality of the schools,” he said.
BJP MLAs Shailendra Jain and Rampyare Kulaste supported the bill in the assembly. The bill was passed after minister’s statement.
As per the bill, the schools will have to provide receipts of every payment made by parents. Two committees, one at district and the other at state level, have been formed for the purpose.
The schools will be required to present three years of account details before district level committee to raise demand for fee hike. If a school violates norms, it will have to pay penalty of Rs 2 lakh for first-time violation. The second-time violation involves penalty of Rs 4 lakh. Penalty for third-time violation is Rs 6 lakh. The school will have to return extra fees.
