In a welcome change from the past, the Fee Fixation Committee in Jammu and Kashmir recently reinforced regulations governing private school fees. Chairman Sunil Hali announced stringent measures, emphasizing that private schools are restricted to charging only tuition, annual, and transport fees without prior approval from the committee. He stressed the mandate of the committee, saying that private schools must adhere to fixed fee structures sanctioned by the committee. He clarified that admission fees are strictly prohibited, in accordance with the existing regulations. Highlighting the accountability mechanism, Hali explained that private schools are required to submit detailed files to the committee every three years. These files must include comprehensive information regarding expenditure, revenue, staffing, salaries, school facilities, and audit reports. Based on these submissions, the committee evaluates the necessity for any fee adjustments.
And this is how it should be. The point is that the private schools have become more about business than education. The past two decades have witnessed a phenomenal growth of these schools in the Valley. They have sprouted all over the place, from deep into the countryside to the congested urban areas, even in lanes and by-lanes. And then there are elite schools which flaunt some showy infrastructure, some even swimming pools, but that is that.
From the looks of it, a predominant part of the private school enterprise in the Valley is more about running a business than the delivery of a quality education. And they get away with this easily because a majority of the parents in Kashmir don’t hold them to account or aren’t sufficiently concerned with the good education. Moreover, in a private school they take the quality of education for granted. But sooner or later, the disruptive nature of the new education technology will force the physical schools to mend their ways. They will have a choice to either measure up or go bust.
It is also the time that the private schools in the Valley should earn their fees rather than arbitrarily charge it without any accountability for their performance. The charges extracted from the students should be in direct proportion to the quality of the services rendered and to the extent facilities of an institution are used by them, not because a student happens to be admitted in a school.
Also, forays into commercial activities isn’t only thing that is wrong with the private schools: their wilful fee structure and for that matter the quality of their teaching itself is a great cause of concern. What is needed, therefore, is not only the regulation of their commercial activities and the fee structure but a comprehensive look at the whole system of private schooling in the union territory. The objective should not be more regulation of these schools but to ensure that they deliver quality education for which they charge heavily. Kashmir has witnessed an unprecedented growth of private schools and most of these lack infrastructure and adequately qualified staff. And even with schools which have the infrastructure, the quality of education is pits. And this is what needs to be urgently addressed, preferably by the private schools themselves.
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