Under various heads that range from 'development' and 'building' funds to admission fees, private schools in city are unlawfully charging capitation fees and getting away with it, complain parents
Under various heads that range from 'development' and 'building' funds to admission fees, private schools in city are unlawfully charging capitation fees and getting away with it, complain parents
As MiD DAY enters the eighth day of its campaign against irregularities in private schools, parents have scontinued writing in to us with complaints of fees being illegal charged in educational institutions. While disproportionate hikes in annual tuition fees has become a never-ending battle for them, parents say that the one relief they have is that they can at least fight as a group as there are many affected people. One of the things that really affects parents is the hefty donations, or non-prescribed fees, taken by schools at the time of admission.
Parents complain that they have no choice but to pay up if they wish to get their children admitted in a school as otherwise they have to risk rejection. Take the example of Jaya Bhaskar (name changed on request). The mother of a Std II student from Sus Road's Vidya Valley School said that she paid Rs 25,000 towards the school development fund and Rs 25,000 as admission fee when she got her son admitted to the school.
"I didn't even know at that time that these fees aren't allowed. I thought it was quite normal as directly or indirectly all schools charge some or other amount as donation. Only the nomenclature changes; somewhere it is for school building and somewhere for development. It is only after I met someone from one of the parents' organisations that I realised we were being made to pay fees that weren't even allowed," she said.
MiD DAY contacted deputy director of education Sunil Magar, who agreed that charging money under the head of development or building fund or even hefty admission fees was not allowed. "Parents can complain to us with a copy of the fee receipts," he said. Jayant Jain, president of the NGO Forum for Fairness in Education, filed a petition in the Bombay High Court last year on the issue of admission fees. Soon after, the HC issued notices to the Chief Minister and the Education Minister, asking them to take action against private schools that charge hefty "capitation fees".
"The state has prescribed nine items as regular heads for fee collection, which include tuition, term, library, gymkhana, hostel fees and others. Nowhere are the heads of development or school building mentioned, which means they are not prescribed and since it is virtually made a pre-requisite for admission, it is considered capitation fees. Moreover, the Secondary School Code, which is applicable to all schools operating in Maharashtra, clearly states that admission fees cannot be more than a month's tuition fee and if more is charged at admission time, it will be considered capitation fees," Jain said.
But all these laws and guidelines do not seem to affect private schools much, as can be seen in the case of Vidya Valley School. Vivek Gupta, trustee of Vidya Valley school, not only accepted collecting development fund but also justified it. "Yes we do take development fees of Rs 25,000 because a lot of cost has gone into developing this level of infrastructure. We have to pay off loans, and that is why we charge this amount," Gupta said.
At Baner's Orchid School too, a parent complained that she had paid Rs 50,000 towards education fees at the time of admission, which was a non-refundable amount. "In fact, I have learnt that the school is continuing to charge it but now they have brought it down to Rs 25,000 as admission fees. Moreover, they don't provide a break-up in fee receipts for parents to know under which heads charges are levied," she said.
Shilpa Solanki, principal of Orchid school, accepted that the school charges admission fees but refused to clarify how much, stating the information was available on school website. "The fee structure is divided into two parts only, mainly admission fees and regular annual fees," Solanki said. When MiD DAY checked the website, we found that primary fees were mentioned to be Rs 50,000 and no break-up of tuition or admission charges was mentioned. The CBSE board to which the school is affiliated has also banned capitation fees.
What law says
> Section 1 (b) of the RTE Act specifies capitation fee to be any kind of donation or payment or contribution other than the fees notified by the school
> The Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act, 1987, states in Section 2 that "capitation fee" means any amount, by whatever name called, paid in cash or kind to school other than prescribed fees. Schools are allowed to charge tuition fees, term fees, library, laboratory, gymkhana, examination and hostel fees
> According to section F of the Secondary School Code, 1998, schools are allowed to charge admission fees that is not more than the amount of one month's tuition fee for the standard the child is admitted
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