No fee hike in private schools for three years: Rajasthan education dept issues new guidelines

Jaipur: Private schools in Rajasthan can’t increase fee for three academic years, say new guidelines issued by the state’s education department.

The Rajasthan education department has also allowed parents to buy uniforms and books from the market apart from the school.

“A committee of parents-teachers should be formed to finalise fee structure in private schools. This committee will fix the fee amount. The name, address, mobile number of all the members of this fee committee will have to be updated on the private school’s portal,” say the guidelines.

The 10-point guidelines further say that it “would be illegal to charge more than the fee approved by the committee. Action may be taken against such schools under the Fees Act and the extra fees collected from parents may have to be returned.”

The education department has stressed that there should be 100 per cent compliance with its norms for the sale of study materials and uniforms and also with the rules made for specially-abled and female students.

The education department has also asked private schools to organise parent-teacher meetings where student and school management related problems should be discussed.

It will be mandatory to provide this information to the District Education Officer and paste the guidelines on school notice boards and upload them on their websites.

Along with prompt hearing of complaints of mental and physical harassment of students, action should be taken against the culprits as soon as possible.

Private schools affiliated with the Board of Secondary Education Rajasthan, CBSE, CISCE, CAIE etc should select books for the academic session by following the norms.

It is mandatory to upload information i.e. name of the author, price of the book etc on the notice boards and websites of schools a month before the start of the academic session, so that parents can buy them from the market also, the education department said.