M Aamir Khan
The Jammu and Kashmir Fee Fixation and Regulation Committee (FFRC) has of late come up with quite a few noteworthy orders. From reducing the monthly fee in a couple of private schools to orders banning admission fees, the FFRC has also restrained school authorities from hiking the monthly fee arbitrarily. Besides directing schools not to charge any transport fee during the lockdown period, it had ordered a 50 per cent reduction in the monthly fee of two top private Valley-based schools. The monthly tuition fee of the Foundation World School, Mammath-Humhama, Budgam was fixed between Rs. 2900 and 3200 from Nursery to Class VIII. Earlier, the school was charging Rs.6360 per month as tuition fee. In another order, the FFRC said it had received several complaints from the parents of students of the Birla Open Minds International School, Pampore in Pulwama district that the school was charging fees without the approval of the Competent Authority. While the school was earlier charging Rs. 4900 to Rs. 6000 per month, the FFRC had directed the Birla Open Minds, Pampore to fix the monthly fee between Rs. 2900 and Rs. 3200. Though the High Court had put the order slashing the monthly fee of the Foundation World School, Mammath-Humhama by 50 per cent on hold and the matter is presently subjudiced, the FFRC also passed a series of other orders to different schools prohibiting collection of admission fee. “Charging and collecting of Admission Fee is prohibited by statutes. The school management is prohibited from charging and collecting Admission Fee from the students. The School management is directed not to charge any other fee from the students other than the fee approved by the Committee. The School management is further directed not to make any future enhancement in fee structure under any head with permission from the Committee,” said separate orders issued to several institutions across Jammu and Kashmir by the FFRC.
The FFRC orders were the need of the hour and made in light of the Supreme Court guidelines that say ‘imparting of education is a charitable act and the money thus earned by the institutions is to be used only for the improvement of facilities for the students and not for personal gains’. As there is no hard and fast rule for fixing the amount of fee, the government in this backdrop had constituted the FFRC in 2013 to regulate the fees structure of private schools. Pertinently, there are about 6000 private schools in Jammu and Kashmir and all of these will have to comply with the guidelines of the Supreme Court and respond to the directive of the FFRC. In case a school does not comply with the FFRC orders, it will attract strict action. In terms of the judgment and orders passed by the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir, the FFRC is empowered to regulate the fees structure of the private educational institutions of the state and consider the cases of enhancement of tuition and other fees being charged by such schools. Even as the judgements of the FFRC need to be welcomed by all, other government departments have not exhibited the same urgency in dealing with complaints from the parents. Take the example of the landmark Supreme Court judgement earlier this year. The order had directed the private unaided schools in Rajasthan to provide deduction of 15 per cent on that amount in lieu of unutilised facilities by the students during the relevant lockdown period of academic year 2020-21. The court reckoned that schools must have saved at least 15 per cent in view of unutilized facilities, and hence, they have to give a deduction in annual school fees to that extent. The court had said the schools ‘must willingly and proactively’ reduce the fees. “We would assume that at least 15 per cent of the annual school fees would be towards overheads/ expenses saved by the school Management. Arguendo, this assumption is on the higher side than the actual savings by the school Management of private unaided schools, yet we are inclined to fix that percentage because the educational institutions are engaged in doing charitable activity of imparting and spreading education and not make money. That they must willingly and proactively do. Hence, collection of commensurate amount (15 per cent of the annual school fees for academic year 2020-2021), would be a case of profiteering and commercialisation by the school Management,” the order said. The order was issued after the Private School Managements of Rajasthan had approached the Supreme Court challenging the government orders regarding deferment of collection of school fees in the wake of Coronavirus pandemic.
Unfortunately, the concerned authorities in Jammu and Kashmir like the School Education Department made no serious efforts to regulate the fee during the Covid lockdown when online classes were taking place. While the FFRC passed orders on non-collection of transport fee, the Education Department later remained silent after a tweet from then Principal Secretary School Education Asgar Samoon that the government ‘may direct private schools to reduce tuition fees of students by 30 per cent’. “In view of the recent judgments of High Courts of Madras and Rajasthan, the government may direct private schools to reduce the tuition fees of students by 30% in view of the closure of schools due to the lockdown from March to September 2020; views of parents & management solicited,” Samoon had tweeted in September last year. There was no word from the government later on reduction of monthly fee during the lockdown period. The parents later accused the government of giving in to the ‘lobbyism’ by the schools’ associations. Therefore, it is imperative that the good work done by the FFRC should be complemented by the School Education Department and other concerned authorities so that the private schools do not fleece the parents.
(Views expressed are personal. Email: [email protected])
