Yogi Govt Brings Ordinance to Regulate Fee Hike in UP Private Schools

Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh took an important decision to regulate the fee hike in private schools of the state. The cabinet on Tuesday gave an in-principle approval to the UP Self-Financed Schools (Fixation of Fee) Ordinance 2018, failing to which the licence of the school will be revoked.

Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said, “The fee process will be more transparent now with only four type of fees like booklet fee, entrance fee, examination fee and joint annual fee. Private schools will have to charge admission fees only once per student. If a school fails to comply with the ordinance more than twice, its licence may also be revoked.”

Sharma said the fee structure of private schools will be divided into two categories. “The first is what the school can charge from students, including admission fees, exam fees, registration fees and annual fees. For all remaining heads, students will pay only for those services which they avail. It will be mandatory for schools to give receipt of all types of fees,” he added.

Regarding changing school dresses from time to time, the Deputy CM said the government has no desire to interfere in their day-to-day functioning.

“We are only reacting to complaints by parents. Once the ordinance comes into force, the uniforms won’t be changed before five years. The schools can also not force parents or students to purchase the uniform from a certain dealer.”

As per the ordinance, private schools who are charging fees of over Rs 20,000 per student per year won’t be able to increase the fees by more than 7-8% annually. The base year for calculation of increase in fee is 2015-16 and if parents have paid more than what is required, the extra amount will be refunded. Also, the school cannot take the entire fee for one year as annual fee; they will have to take it quarterly or half-yearly.

Most importantly, as per the ordinance, a committee will be formed under all divisional commissioners, which will comprise a chartered accountant, a PWD engineer and one representative of a school’s parents association. The committee will be empowered to look into any kind of dispute related to the school.