Kathmandu, May 25
Student unions said on Wednesday that private and boarding schools are hiking fees at their own free will because their proprietors are powerful people and getting government support is no big deal for them.
Fourteen student unions, making public a report prepared after monitoring private and boarding schools, accused the Ministry of Education and subordinate bodies of shielding such schools.
They said they found Little Angels’ School, Galaxy Public School and Siddhartha Vanasthali collecting exorbitant fees in course of monitoring conducted in coordination with the education ministry. The unions noted that lawmaker Umesh Shrestha is at the helm of LAS, whereas lawmakers Gita Rana and Laxman Rajvanshi are at the helm of Galaxy and Siddhartha that are collecting fees by flouting government directives.
Student leaders accused government officials of encouraging proprietors of private schools to flout directives meant to regulate school fees. Some of the schools collect up to Rs 30,000 monthly fees from each student in Grade I and charge exorbitantly while providing food, snacks and stationery, the leaders said. They accused the schools of hiking fees without informing parents. Despite this, regulatory bodies do not bother to initiate action against errant schools, they said, adding: This shows there’s a nexus between regulatory bodies and private schools.
Now, there’s a need to monitor government officials that are supposed to monitor private schools, they pointed. The leaders have threatened to launch a movement in a bid to press the government for action against private and boarding schools at fault.
As per Education Regulations and Institutional School Fee Fixation Directives, private and boarding schools cannot collect more than Rs 5,000 in monthly fees, more than Rs 10,000 in annual fees and more than Rs 10,000 in admission fees.
But this rule does not apply to some of the reputed schools in the valley, it appears. In the name of admission fees, such schools have already collected from each student up to Rs 50,000 at the start of this academic session, making crores of rupees.
