Fee Committee to categorise schools on infrastructure basis

Srinagar, Feb 1: Government’s Committee for Fixation of Fee Structure of Private Educational Institutions would categorise private schools on the basis of their infrastructure.
The committee has asked the schools to disclose their fee structure and their academic achievements in the last three years. They have 10 days to respond with the details.
The schools also have to submit information regarding “achievements in extracurricular activities” and “other exceptional achievements in any field”.
The idea, as per the Administrative Officer of the Committee, Nazir-ul-Hussain Shah, is to “categorise” the schools on various parameters.
“Some of the private institutions that have recently come up and have a dearth of infrastructure have been charging fee at par with schools that are better placed in terms of the facilities for the students,” he said.
“We would frame the fee structure according to the school’s infrastructure. It will help us in regulating the fees charged by the schools.”
Shah said the categorisation would “hopefully result in slashing the admission fee in some schools”.
The schools revealing their respective fee structure and the infrastructure in place there would, as per Shah, let the committee know about the utilisation of the fees.
The committee had earlier also asked the private schools to reveal the fee structure and its utilisation in the schools.
However, Shah said that some of the institutions had not submitted the details yet.
Shah said they have also constituted “special cells at the district level” to know the fee structure and the infrastructure in private schools.
“The district-level cells would inspect the private schools in the respective schools and forward the information to us,” Shah said.
Shah, however, admitted the committee handicap to act against the erring schools in absence of an appropriate law.
“If a law comes into force, it will make the committee stronger,” Shah added.