The Fee Regulatory Committee (FRC) received 49 complaints in the last two years about schools charging higher than the fee fixed by the committee. Of these, 28 were from Ahmedabad while the rest were from Gandhinagar.
The state while replying to a question on what action the government had taken against schools found violating the FRC order, said that in most cases it directed the concerned school to charge as per the FRC and repay the difference.
The state also said that it had not taken any legal action against the schools and refused to discuss it further stating that the matter was pending before the Supreme Court.
NO LEGAL ACTION
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| In most cases the state has directed the concerned school to charge as per the FRC and repay the difference. However, it did not take any legal action against them |
Some of the schools in Ahmedabad against which the FRC received a complaint include Delhi Public School, Zebar School for Children, Udgam, Ahmedabad International School, among others.
The difference in school fees (the one fixed by the FRC and the one actually charged by the school) varied from a measly Rs 2000 to Rs 70,000. Most of the schools against which a complaint about overcharging was filed with the FRC followed the CBSE or ICSE curriculum. Interestingly, most of the schools that charged exorbitantly more than the fee fixed by the FRC were affiliated to international boards.
It should be noted that every year the FRC in the state fixes the fee for private schools. For this year, it has set a lower cut-off of Rs 15,000 for primary, Rs 25,000 for secondary and Rs 30,000 for higher secondary schools. Schools that want to charge beyond the cut-off are required to approach the FRC justifying their fees.
In the year 2017, the state Assembly had passed a law to prevent private schools from charging exorbitant fees from students. The Gujarat Self-Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017 allowed the state to fix the fee for primary, secondary and higher secondary schools and was a binding on schools offering the state education board curriculum as well as CBSE, ICSE and international baccalaureate boards. Parents could approach the FRC with a complaint in case a school charges more than what is fixed as the fee.
