Hyderabad: Parents seek draft legislation on fee regulation in public domain

Hyderabad: Is the Telangana State government shying away from putting its draft school fee legislative policy in the public domain seeking suggestions from different stakeholders?

It may be mentioned here that the State Cabinet had decided to bring in legislation to regulate fee in all schools and colleges on the lines of the Fee Regulation Committee existing for the professional colleges in the State.

The cabinet sub-committee headed by Education Minister P Sabita Indra Reddy and constituting Welfare Minister Koppula Eshwar, Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy, Tourism and Culture Minister V Srinivas Goud, Finance Minister T Harish Rao, Minister of Legislative Affairs V Prashanth Reddy, Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar, Panchayat Raj Minister E Dayakar Rao and Information Technology Minister KT Rama Rao as its members were asked to submit recommendations on the modalities to bring the new legislation.

According to sources in the State Education department, so far, parents and school managements, even teachers' organisations have submitted memoranda on the issue of fee regulation.

Speaking to The Hans India, N Srikanth, a parent asked, "Why can't the draft proposals on the fee regulation legislation be placed in the public domain?"

In the last two years, parents have experienced a hell of a time with the schools. Baring a few, several private corporate schools have collected regular fee in violation of the government orders. There was none to complain. Even when complaints were lodged, there was no action taken and schools had their way."

The law should be comprehensive in nature to prevent the exploitation of parents by schools.

"Some schools claim that they follow international standards curriculum. They use terms like experiential learning, experimental learning, and going a step forward offering metacognitive learning, focused cognitive processes, and making pupils learn science in a hands-on way," said K S Murthy, an IT professional.

Sharing his experience, he pointed out a high-end corporate school charging Rs 2 lakh per year for each of her daughters calls for orientation session for parents. Barring one or two, the teachers themselves have no idea how to customise cognitive learning processes to suit the children admitted to their school.

"At home, I spend extra time with my children to ensure they are on right track of learning.

Making high sounded technical terms to lure the parents to feel their children are going to learn something great is one way. The other way is, schools offering add on and outsourced services. They include horse riding, swimming (though no swimming pool exists on the school premises), and different kinds of training. Including, preparing students for IIT from Class VII," he added.

"Against this backdrop, it is prudent on the part of the State government to place its draft fee regulation bills in the public domain and seek suggestions from the public. As it was done in the case of New Education Policy-2020," said Sangeeta Devi, a senior teacher of mathematics in a private school in Himayatnagar.