Even as complaints against private schools for charging tuition fee in violation of norms continue to pour in the J&K School Fee Fixation Committee (SFFC) is defunct for the past four months.
An official said the term of chairman SFFC, Justice (Retd) Imtiyaz Hussian ended on July 28.
He said the authorities hadrecommended extension in his tenure for one year. “The matter went to thenAdvisor Khurshid Ahmad Ganai who recommended for constitution of a panel totake a call on the issue. But the entire process got shelved for unknownreasons,” the official said.
He said the delay inappointment of the Chairman has led to uncertainty about the fate of thecommittee which is a regulatory body with a mandate to regulate fee structureof schools.
“This has in turn given afree hand to the private schools to charge tuition and annual fee to thestudents as per their own will,” said the official, adding there was no clarityon whether the committee will be made functional.
As the governmentcontinues to delay the decision the reports said the private schools haveenhanced tuition fee as well as annual fee for current academic sessionallegedly in violation of norms.
The Directorate of SchoolEducation Kashmir (DSEK) has also failed to check functioning of the privateschools.
Anofficial said since the Committee was defunct the DSEK should have activatedthe offices of Chief Education Officers to inspect the private schools to checkthe schools were abiding by the norms.
The SFFC was constituted in2015 in the wake of Supreme Court (SC) directions asking states to regulate feestructure in the private schools.
The term of its Chairman istwo years in J&K. “To make thiscommittee workable, the department amended school education Act 2002 to makethe Committee part of the Act,” another official said.
“The recommendations made by the SFFC on feestructure in the schools are implemented by the DSEK through Chief EducationOfficers,” the official said.