Jammu and Kashmir Joint Coordination Committee of Private Schools and J&K Private School Association Jammu called on Chairman Fee Fixation Committee Chairman Justice (Retd) Imtiyaz Hussain.
President JKJCCPS Showkat M Chowdhary and General SecretaryJKPSA Jammu Ajay Gupta led the delegation accompanied by Yousuf Manzar, IqbalBeth, Rameshwar Singh Manhas, RamPrakash and others.
During the meeting, the delegation drew the attention of theChairman FFC towards point number 8 of the fresh Order No 01-FFC of 2019barring private schools from charging an admission fee.
President JKJCCPS informed the Chairman FFC that the ordercontradicts with the J&K School Education Act 2002, issued by JK CivilSecretariat Education Department under SRO 123 on 18th March 2010.
He said the Act under rule no 9 titled “Levy and Collectionof Fee” says “the admission shall be charged only once i.e. upon the firstenrolment of the child/student in the school.”
Showkat M Chowdhary informed Justice Imtiyaz Hussain thatadmission fee is only utilized for the development of school infrastructure,which is benefitting both the schools and the students.
The delegation appealed the Chairman FFC to reconsider theorder for the betterment of the school education.
Chowdhary also informed him that Private Schools had soughtincrease of a minimum of 8 per cent annual fee hike against the approved 6 percent hike in the free structure mentioned in point number 5 of the fresh order.
Chowdhary further informed him that schools provide salaryhike to the teachers and other staff annually so that teachers’ salaries arenot compromised with.
“If we provide abetter salary to the teachers only then they can give better results. We try toinvest in teachers and provide them with handsome salaries so they don’t alsocompromise on giving their best efforts. The salary hike to teachers and otherexpenses are only possible if there is an annual increment of 8 per cent in feestructure,” he said.
The delegation requested that the annual hike may beincreased from 6 per cent to 8 per cent.
The delegation also sought an extension of dates for thesubmission of files for the approval of fee structure.
Meanwhile, Chairman JKJCCPS has appealed its members tosubmit their files with the FFC for approval of their fee structure.