IMPHAL, January 29: The All Manipur Students’ Union, AMSU has said in a press release that under its initiative of transforming the education system, it has been spreading awareness amongst the parents and guardians of school students on the fee structure of private schools.
The press release while pointing out the increase in admission and monthly fees of several schools and the charging of high computer fees, has said that certain private schools in the state have been charging fees according to their wish without any consideration for the students and their parents and guardians.
It has said that there are certain schools whose computer fees is more than the monthly fees of other schools, even though there is a question on how beneficial such classes are to the students.
There is also the question of how many computer classes do these schools provide to the students in a week, it said.
The AMSU has charged in its press release that there are certain schools which have started to charge computer fees only for commercial purposes. The press release has further identified certain schools which are charging exorbitant computer fees above the monthly fees. It has further said that there are also institutions which have computer classes but do not charge extra computer fees.
There are schools which charge library fees from even students of pre-nursery, nursery and KG classes, which means that these schools have become a means of earning, it said.
Whereas the Section 5 (b) of the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur clearly states, “The aim of the management should be to impart quality education to the children and not to earn any profit” and the Right to Education Act, Section 18 and Manipur Government RTE Rule 2010 rule 11 (b) Recognition of School says, “The school is not run for profit to any individual, group or association of individuals or any other persons”, the release said.
Several schools located in the urban area have been ignoring all such rules and have been charging fees according to their wishes, it said.
“There are also schools that charge establishment fees, registration fees, development fees and maintenance fees during admission of a student into the school and schools which charge laboratory Development fees which show that the schools had been opened only for commercial purpose,”
The release said and urged the government and its concerned department to look into the issue at the earliest. It has further urged the government that in case it cannot develop the government schools in the state, then the government should provide scholarship, teacher’s grant, incentives, etc.
It has also urged the schools under the Catholic Educational Society not to increase their admission fees and monthly fees and to submit a list of the teachers’ salaries to the student body.