Tamil Nadu   

Fleecing in schools: action sought

Namakkal: Parents of children in private schools in the district are worried that no action has been taken against institutions that are fleecing them with regarding to fees.

“The school education department released the latest fees structure at the Chief Education Office here on Wednesday but the school where my daughter is studying her 7 {+t} {+h} standard has collected exorbitant fees way back in the last week of May,” says Praveen Kumar.

“It is also disappointing to know that there is no proper channel for us to give feedback to the CEO or officials concerned on the fleecing,” says M. Vijayalakshmi (34), a parent.

“There is no means to claim the excess fees as the school gave me a small piece of paper on which it was written ‘fees paid' while it had no trace of the amount paid, name of the school or logo, name of the signing authority or the date on which the payment was made.”

Chief Education Officer A. Vijayaraghavan told The Hindu that he has not received a consolidate fees structure guideline for all the schools. The schools should sign a copy of the fees regulation given to them and hand it over at the (CEO's) office,” the CEO said.

Tuition fees

The regulations are only for tuition fees whereas it has not been mentioned on the money to be collected in various other forms – transportation, lunch and uniform fees, he added. However all private schools have been instructed to hand over a proper receipt for the payment made for such transactions, Mr. Vijayaraghavan said.

He also said that he was not empowered to take action against schools fleecing parents through various forms of fees other than tuition fees. On steps taken to control fleecing the CEO said, “Schools have been asked to abide by the fees structure given to them and to paste the same on the notice boards.” The Inspector of Matriculation Schools has also been asked to check it, he said.

While many organisations are staging protests seeking reduction of the fees regulation given by the government, the cries of parents here are falling on deaf ears, says social activist L. Vasu.

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