The government has asked the private schools to refund the capitation fee to the parents charged from them at the time of admission of their wards in kindergarten classes.
The admission session in most of the private schools started a few weeks ago.
The government direction came days after Greater Kashmir reported that some top notch private schools were charging capitation fee in violation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 as also an order issued in this regard by of school fee fixation committee.
“Any private school charging capitation fee or admission fee in violation of the RTE Act 2009 and the school fee fixation committee orders may refund it to the parents immediately,” principal secretary school education department, AsgarSamoon said. He said the formal orders in this regard will be issued very soon.
The schools started the admission process for kindergarten classes despite the government directions not to go ahead with such admissions unless formal order for implementation of RTE Act is issued.
The School Fee Fixation Committee (SFFC) has addressed a letter to the principal secretary school education department stating that it has put a ban on private schools on charging capitation fee.
As earlier reported by this newspaper, the SFFC in its order issued in January 2019 stated the private schools should not charge any other fee including admission fee or any amount other than the tuition fee.
“Since the new academic session is about to commence and some schools are already in process of completing the admission process, the committee is receiving complaints from parents and through print media that the schools were admission process is underway are charging huge amount of admission fee in violation of the orders of the committee and the High Court orders,” the letter reads.
It states that the order issued in January 2019 clearly mentions that any private school which contravenes any provision of the order may lose the recognition by the concerned board or the government.
The committee has further recommended to the government that the private schools be directed not to charge admission fees in violation of orders of the committee. “Action under rules may also be initiated against such private schools having already collected the admission fee from the parents,” it reads.