J-K admin issues notice to 19 pvt schools for charging 'exorbitant' fee

The Jammu and Kashmir Governor's administration has issued notices to 19 private schools for charging "exorbitant" fee and forcing parents to purchase non-prescribed books and stationery from selected vendors in Jammu.

The Directorate of School Education Jammu has given three days' time to reply to the notices issued to the principals of these 19 schools.

"Complaints have been received from the parents regarding charging of exorbitant fee without the approval of competent authority, the parents are being forced to purchase school books (not prescribed by the authority) and stationery items from selective vendors at very high rates", Director School Education Jammu Anuradha Gupta said in the notice to principals here.

She said that in order to verify the complaints, the directorate had constituted teams, which submitted their reports to it.

The reports revealed that these schools had introduced books other than those prescribed by the competent authority CBSE/ NCERT/JKBOSE (Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education)