Clear stand on fee hike for next session: Schools to Chandigarh Administration

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 26

The Independent Schools’ Association (ISA) has once again raised concerns over charging fee before starting admissions for entry-level classes.

The ISA claims that as per the UT Fee Act local schools are allowed to hike fee upto 8 per cent every year. However, as they have not charged full fee in the last session, the association wants to know if schools are allowed to hike fee upto 16 per cent for the 2021-22 session.

A meeting in this regard was held last week and the agenda to finalise the fee structure was not discussed by the authorities, the ISA stated.

“We want to tell parents about fee before starting the admission process of entry level classes. The information has to be given in school prospectus. However, there’s no word of confirmation from the UT Administration. Last week’s meeting was unfruitful. Now, we are going to submit a representation again,” said HS Mamik, president, ISA.

He insisted that schools are being kept in the dark over charging fee.

“As per the Fee Act, we can hike fee upto 8 per cent every year. We were not allowed to charge full fee in the last session. We want to know if schools can hike fee up to 16 per cent as per the Act for the upcoming session. If not then what is the procedure to decide the fee structure?” he added.

“We want the UT Administration to clear its stand on this issue and assure us that the approved fee structure won’t be taken back, which has been done earlier during the Covid-19 pandemic, citing implementation of the Disaster Management Act for the next session or in the future. Otherwise, the matter will be stretched to no limits,” he said.

He maintained that no information or discussion by the UT Administration would affect the upcoming common admission schedule of entry-level classes starting from December 2.

“How can we decide on the fee structure if the UT Administration is not going to listen to our claims? They have to come up with a clear solution to allow schools to make public their next session fee structure for the upcoming admissions. What would we say to parents when they ask us about fee or fee hike at that time when we ourselves don’t know about the UT Administration’s plans,” he added.