Hyderabad: Parents stage dharna in front of Directorate of School Education

Hyderabad: The Telangana Parents' Association (TPA), along with representatives of the Telangana Schools, Tech Colleges Staff Association (TSTCSA), Mothers' Association and Child Rights Protection Forum (CRPF), staged a dharna in front of the Commissioner and Directorate of School Education office on Monday demanding regulation of high fee in private schools.

Protesters alleged that hefty fee in private schools has been a problem for the past many years. Despite different parents' groups and other stakeholders giving representations to the government on the issue, nothing much has changed.

The protesters rejected the 10 per cent fee hike proposals put forth by the State Education department on March 2. They demanded that instead of a school-level committee, a State-level committee on a par with TAFR, be formed to regulate fee.

N Narayana, president, Telangana Parents Association, said, "the fee for all professional courses has been regulated with the formation of Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC). For B Tech course in a private college in Telangana, one has to pay a minimum of Rs 35,000 and maximum of Rs 1.34 lakh a year. In a private school in Telangana, an LKG student has to pay more than Rs 1 lakh as fee for a year and up to class 10, the fee ranges between Rs. 1 lakh and Rs 4 lakh, compared to other States, the private school fee is higher.

Around eight States have implemented the Private Fee School Regulation Act. Recently, the Education department said that a legislation would be introduced in the budget session. But now that's over; nothing has been implemented yet. G Bhagyalakshmi, president, Mothers' Association, said, "the State government should do something about it within two months before the schools reopen in June. Even if there is no Assembly session before June, the government should bring in a law through an ordinance. They should fix fee for three years, as every year the private schools keep increasing the fee. At least the government should understand that due to the Covid pandemic parents have been economically hit.