Private schools hike transportation fee; parents aghast

Srinagar, Mar 21: Private schools in the Valley have hiked transportation fee by “up to 40 percent” this academic session, parents alleged.
The alleged hike in the transport fee comes at a time when the schools have already been allowed a hike of up to 8 percent in the tuition fee.
Against the transport charges in the academic year 2016-17, Delhi Public School, Baramulla, has hiked the transport charges of the students by “up to 40 percent” this academic year, Dr Abdul Qayoom, a parent told The Kashmir Monitor.
Saying that the school had unilaterally hiked the transport charges, Qayoom said, “Even as ours is a strong parents’ association, they never consulted us.”
Despite the authorities not allowing any hike in the transport charges, the school, Qayoom said, was violating the orders.
As there was “no authority” to regulate the transport fee charged by the institutions, the private schools were acting like “vagabonds” by “unilaterally hiking” the fee, Khurshid Ahmad Khoja, a parent alleged.
While the institution charged “genuine” tuition fee, Iqbal Memorial Institute (IMI) Bemina, Khoja said, had hiked the transport charges “by up to 15 percent” in the ongoing academic year.
“The bus fee has not been fixed by anybody. There is no authority to regulate it,” he added.
The schools, Khoja said, were instead “supposed to charge lesser as compared to public transport fare, because they have lesser maintenance charges.”
While the government’s Fee Fixation Committee (FFC), which is expected to regulate the fee structure at private schools “expresses helplessness” as per Khoja, even the concerned Chief Education Officers who are supposed to enforce the FFC’s orders were “doing nothing over the issue”, he added.
Admitting the hike in transport charges by the private educational institutions, President Private Schools Association Kashmir (PSAK), G N Var, said the matter would be solved “within a week”.
Apparently referring to the hike as a reaction to the Traffic Police’s recent crackdown on overloading in the school buses, Var remarked, “As there is no overloading now” when asked why the schools spontaneously overcharged the students on the transport facility.
Chairman FFC, (Retd) Justice Hakeem Imtiyaz did not respond to calls made by this reporter.