Visakhapatnam: Private schools continue to violate norms by not displaying the fee details on notice boards. Though the government has made it clear that it would regulate the fee structure in private school across the state, the education department does not have details of the fees that is collected by private schools.
The Education Department has now decided to be strict and has directed private schools to display the fee structures on notice board. There are about 1,200 private schools in Visakhapatnam district alone, and almost all of them have failed to display the fee structure. Some of the schools are charging lakhs in the name of ‘international school’.
District education officer B. Lingeswara Reddy said, “We have informed all the schools to display the fee details on their notice board. We don’t have the details of fee that is being collected by private schools. The fee varies from school to school. At present, we are expecting guidelines on fee regulation and take action soon after getting the guidelines. Before that, we will ensure that all the private schools display the fee in their notice boards.”
However, private school association blames corporate schools for the high fee structure. They say that corporate schools are collecting money under various heads like admission fee, building fee and other fees.
AP Private Schools Association chairman K.S.N. Murthy said, “Many of the budget, school follow this and are displaying the fee details on the notice board. It is the corporate schools that don’t display the fee structure.”
He added, “Many of the private schools are budget schools and they don’t collect huge amounts from the students. According to the norms we collect only Rs 9,000 per student per annum in urban areas and around Rs 7,000 in rural areas.”
This is actually not sufficient in urban areas as we have to pay huge rents. So some budget schools may collect more and they may not display the fees sometimes. However, corporate schools are collecting high fees and must be controlled.”
