Three schools, which cater especially to children from Kathmandu´s elite classes, are found to have violated a government directive on charges for admissions and admission forms.

Paragon Public School and Pathshala Nepal of Kathmandu and Shuvatara School of Lalitpur are found to have charged each student Rs 500 for admission forms and fees. A recent government directive does not allow schools to charge more than Rs 100 for admission fee and Rs 25 for admission form.

Of four schools raided by two separate inspection teams, one headed by Kathmandu´s District Education Officer (DEO) Baikuntha Aryal and another led by Lalitpur´s DEO Mankaji Shrestha, Rato Bangla School was not found to have charged more than the limit set by the directive.

"We did not find any such evidence at Rato Bangla," said Lalitpur DEO Shrestha. "But, there are allegations that Rato Bangla is also fleecing its students. We will continue to look into the matter."

"As for Shuvatara School, we have instructed its management to correct the mistakes," said Shrestha. "If Shuvatara does not return illegally-collected money to the parents, we will take legal action."

In Kathmandu, both Paragan Public School and Pathshala Nepal have agreed in writing to return illegally-charged fees. "As per the agreement, they will return money that has already been collected from the parents," said Aryal. "And they will follow the directive in the days to come also."

According to Suprabhat Bhandari, president of Guardians´ Association of Nepal and a member of one of the two inspection teams, no raid was conducted in Bhaktapur. "We had received complaints against schools run by the Nepal Army and Nepal Police in Bhaktapur," he said. "However, when we protested, both these schools returned the fee overcharge to parents."

Earlier, Budhanilkantha School of Kathmandu had also returned overcharges to parents.

The directive, which has been rejected by the Private and Boarding Schools Organization of Nepal (PABSON), was issued by the government on February 19, in line with a ruling of the Supreme Court (SC).

source: republica,22 March 2013