Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA), which has recently filed a PIL in the High Court against indiscriminate fee hikes in private schools, is devising an action plan to intensify its agitation to bring pressure on the Telangana government for fee regulation in private schools before the new academic year begins next month.
The association has been demanding limiting admission fees in all schools to Rs 5,000, making transfer of students from one school to another easier along the lines of mobile number portability and refunding admission fees collected in excess of Rs 5,000 since August 2010, when HC had ruled in favour of collecting only Rs 5,000 as admission fees.
HSPA secretary Mr N. Subramanyam said they had already taken up these issues in the PIL filed in the High Court but also wanted to explore other options like holding demo-nstrations and protest rallies to bring pressure on the government.
“Parents are now forced to pay admission fees (non-refundable) anywhere between Rs 25,000 and Rs 2,50,000 even for admissi-on to nursery classes. The government in undivided AP had issued GO No. 91 in 2009 directing schools not to collect more than Rs 5,000. It was challenged in the High Court by around 30 schools. However, the Court had ruled in favour of the government and HSPA (which impleaded in the case) by upholding the rule,” he added.
The association pointed out that the above rule came into force from the date of the judgement — August 27, 2010 — and hence all admission fees collected in excess of Rs 5,000 would have to be refunded.
The association also demanded that the government make transfer of students from one school to other easy, like mobile number portability. “It’s easy to shift from one mobile service provider to another today as the cost of shifting is just Rs 19. In contrast, it is very difficult to shift students from a school without incurring a loss running into thousands of rupees.
“The parent not only loses the admission fees paid in the existing school but also has to pay the huge admission fee for the new school,” he said.
