Vijayawada: In a major setback to the AP government, the high court has revoked the two GOs that fixed the fees for private schools and junior colleges in the state.
A single-judge bench headed by Justice Durga Prasad delivered the verdict here on Monday after hearing a batch of petitions that had challenged GOs 53 and 54 issued by the state on Aug. 24. Through these, the government fixed the fees based on the recommendations of the AP School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission.
The court directed the commission to issue a fresh notification as per rule 8 of APSERMC, invite details from both private schools and junior colleges and recommend new fees structures by March 31, 2022. It directed the state government to finalize the fee structure based on such recommendations.
The court observed that if the fees to be fixed by the state government was less than the fees collected by the educational institutions for the year 2021-22, such educational institutions should return the balance amount to the students. In case the fees to be fixed by the government are more than the fees collected by the educational institutions, the balance amount could be collected from the students.
The court observed that the commission fixing of fees for the educational institutions based on geographical location like gram panchayat, municipality and municipal corporation was not correct. Same fees could not be fixed for a school located in gram panchayat but providing international standards and the one offering basic facilities in the same place.
The court felt the need to safeguard the interests of the students and their parents.
The commission has the authority to recommend a fee structure as per norms and it is up to the state government to confirm it, the court said.
It said that in the present case, it appeared that the commission confirmed the fee structures based solely on the location of educational institutions. There is a need on the part of the commission to come up with a permanent solution to the issue, the court said.
It noted that the fixing of fee structure was stirring up a controversy every year.
Earlier, the state government fixed the fee structure at Rs 10,000 for nursery to Class V in villages, Rs 11,000 in towns and Rs 12,000 in cities for the year 2021-24. Similarly, for Class VI to X, the fees were fixed at Rs 12,000 in villages, Rs 15,000 in towns and Rs 18,000 in cities. The government also fixed a lesser fee structure for private colleges in the state.
