Bhaktapur: A meeting of Central Fee Fixation and Monitoring Committee under the chairmanship of director general of the Department of Education today formed a five-member task force to review Private School Fee Fixation Directives-2016.

The task force headed by director of DoE has four representatives from guardians’ associations, Private and Boarding Schools Organisation Nepal and National Private and Boarding Schools Association Nepal as members.

Suprabhat Bhandari, president of Guardian’s Association Nepal and member of CFFMC, today said the task force will review the directives and discuss provisions that need to be amended. “It will submit a report with recommendations to the CFFMC,” he said.

Private schools have been refusing to follow the directives, demanding amendment to some of the provisions. As per the directives, any fee hike should be endorsed by two thirds of parents, which the schools said was impossible to implement.

Before the directives came into force, schools used to send the fee proposal prepared by their respective management committees to District Education Office for approval. But since the new academic session, schools are required to get their fee structures approved by two thirds of parents.

A few months ago, a team led by joint-secretaries had visited several private schools in the Valley to monitor fee structure, scholarship distribution, availability of textbooks, among others.

During the monitoring, the team found most private schools fleecing parents.The monitoring team had submitted a report to the Department of Education to take appropriate action against schools flouting government directives.

DoE later directed district education offices in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur to take action against 18 schools, including Brihaspati Vidhyasadan, Galaxy Public School, Rato Bangala School, Shuvatara School, GEMS, Little Angel’s School, Matribhumi School and Rajarshi Gurukul, among others, for charging fees above the ceiling.

source:the himalayan times,18 july 2016