Fee hike: Bombay HC order to be challenged

The Forum for Fairness in Education has decided to challenge the recent Bombay high court interim order allowing private unaided schools to hike fees up to 15 per cent for the academic year 2016-17. The forum has said that many schools that had hiked their fees for the academic year 2015-16 and are now using this court order as an excuse to hike the fees again, which is against the School Fee Regulation Act 2011. The forum has asked parents from schools under the SSC, CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE and other boards to furnish details of fees collected by their respective schools since the past three years so that they can provide documentary evidence against the “flawed” interim order.

Speaking about the issue, Jayant Jain, president of the FFE, said that a forum of private unaided schools had issued a circular to all its member schools to increase fees by 15 per cent regardless of the schools having increased the fees in the previous academic year. “The Act has clearly stated that schools cannot hike fees every year. The premise on which the interim order has been passed is flawed and the court has been misled, hence we will intervene and request the court to specify on whom the interim order applies to,” said Mr Jain.

Referring to clause 12 (2) of the Act, Mr Jain said that it clearly stipulated when and how schools could increase fees. ‘ .and shall be binding on the parties for two academic years. At the end of the said period, the private school may be at liberty to propose changes in its fee structure ’, he said, quoting the Act. “Though the Act has specified that a fee once decided by the committee constituted to fix the fees was announced it would be applicable for two years, some schools are using the interim order to hike the fees. Hence we will intervene and ask the court to pass specific instructions in this regards,” said Mr Jain.

The forum has also asked parents to provide details of the PTA as well as the various heads under which the fees have been collected by the schools over the past three academic years. “This is intended to collect data to be placed before the court to show how the schools flout the rules to exploit and extract more money from the parents,” said Mr Jain.