Bengaluru, Jun 29: Knowing that children and their parents are knocking on the doors of the court every year over the issue of “excess” fee and denial of admission by private schools, the Karnataka High Court on Monday issued a series of guidelines for both the State education authorities and private schools for effective implementation of fee regulation norms.
As per the guidelines, every recognised private educational institution should prominently display fee details on the notice board every year and furnish the details to the jurisdictional Deputy Directors of Public Instruction (DDPI).
Justice Aravind Kumar issued the directions while partly allowing petitions filed by some students, who had questioned actions of some private primary schools in Bengaluru city denying admission to them to the higher classes for non-payment of “prescribed” fee, which they termed as “excess”.
Parents of children studying at New Carmel School, Krishna International and Vidyaniketan School had moved the court, claiming that the schools were violating the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, and the Karnataka Education Institutions (Regulation of certain fees and donations) Rules, 1999, by collecting excess fees.
Partly allowing the petitioners' contentions, the bench directed the schools to collect fees as per the Act and Rule 10(7) of the 1999 rules within a week. The court had earlier directed the parents to deposit 40% of the fees demanded by the schools.
The bench in its order said private schools must submit their audit reports based on the salary of their faculty, expenditure and the number of students, and submit their fee structure by January 15 for the next academic year.
The bench directed the DPI and the DDPI to examine and approve the fee structure through Block Education Officers (BEOs) by February 15 for the next academic year. The court directed the Fee Regulatory Authority to complete the verification of complaints it receives within 15 days.
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