Telangana: Control on school fees soon

Hyderabad: The state government on Thursday said a fee regulatory mechanism for private schools in the state would soon be put in place.

The issue of indiscriminate fee hike by private schools figured in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, with Opposition members taking the government to task for failing to put in place a fee regulatory mechanism even after nearly three years in power.

BJP MLA K. Laxman said private schools had “totally commercialised education” in the state making it unaffordable for the poor and middle classes.

He said though parents are holding agitations demanding regulation of fee and had submitted numerous representations to the government over the issue, but there has been no response.

“Except for giving assurances that it will regulate fees in private schools, no concrete step has been taken by the government so far. This is creating doubts among parents that private schools are even dictating terms to the government and obstructing it from regulating fee,” Dr Laxman said.

However, Deputy CM Kadiam Srihari, who holds the education portfolio, said that the government was in the process of bringing fee regulatory mechanism.

“Earlier, attempts were made by previous governments to regulate fees. But they encountered legal troubles and GOs were stuck down by courts. We don’t want a repeat, hence we are taking extra precautions to see that the new fee regulatory mechanism stands legal scrutiny,” he said.

The government has constituted a panel to suggest measures for effective regulation, which will submit its report soon.

However, Opposition members said this would serve no purpose in the new academic year in June since the schools have already increased fees and were collecting revised fees from parents and demanded the government to expedite the process.