Telangana Parents Association to step up stir for fee regulation

Tirupati Rao committee, which was appointed by the State government last year on `fee regulation in private schools’, has not yet submitted its report. The private schools continue to extort money from parents in various forms

Hyderabad: Telangana Parents Association (TPA) has decided to intensify its agitation demanding that the Tirupati Rao Committee on fee regulation submit its report immediately.

The Association held protest demonstrations in front of the collectorates on Monday across Telangana. TPA State President N Narayana who had participated in the demonstration in front of Ranga Reddy Collector’s office, said that the inordinate delay in submitting the report had resulted in the parents continuing to suffer paying high fees in private schools.

These schools apart from increasing the fees many times, has also been forcing the parents to buy books, stationery and other material from the school authorities at high rates.

It may be recalled that the Government had appointed Prof Tirupati Rao Committee last year to make recommendations on fee regulation in the private schools. The committee held several rounds of meetings with the stakeholders and prepared the report. The report was supposed to be submitted in May but it sought extension by one month.

Recent incident of drug abuse in the private schools has accentuated the need to rein in the private schools which have been acting without caring the government. Parent and student unions have been demanding regulation and monitoring of private schools. They allege that though these schools collect thousands of rupees of fee, they were unable to protect the students from falling prey to social evils.

Narayana said that the promises made by the Chief Minister and Minister for Education on controlling the fee in private schools were not kept even one month after the reopening of schools. The private schools have taken this as an advantage and looting the parents with exorbitant fees.

He said that as the government failed to control the sale of textbooks, the private schools have collected Rs 7,000 from each student for the books. Apart from this, the private schools have been collecting different types of fee in the name of smart classes, special coaching, project work and SMS services.They have been issuing transfer certificates to the students whose parents questioned the exorbitant fee, he added.