Move to form panel to look into school fee structure hailed

The decision of Jammu and Kashmir government to set up a panel to look into the fee structure of schools was today welcomed by a non-profit organisation working for implementation of Right to Education Act.
"We welcome the decision of the government to set up the committee and are hopeful that the committee will submit its report at the earliest," School Reform Movement (SRM) convener Fazl Illahi said in a statement.
In a bid to tackle unjustified fee hikes in private educational institutions, the state government last week set up a panel which has been tasked with fixing fee structures of such institutes.

The five-member panel will be headed by former Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, Justice (Retd) Bilal Ahmed Naziki.
The Education Ministry recently came under fire from parents of children going to private schools over unscheduled fee hike.
Illahi said the setting up of the committee was the need of the hour as many private schools where arbitrarily hiking the fees every year without any justification.
"Many schools have increased the tuition fee over the past three years by as much as 90 per cent without adding any new facilities. Every hike in diesel prices results in 20 per cent hike in transportation charges for the students. This needs to be rationalised," Illahi said.

The other major issue before the committee set is to curb the practice of schools seeking donations and capitation fees at the time of admissions, which is a violation of Supreme court guidelines on the matter, he said.