During a meeting with a delegation of Guardians’ Association of Nepal (GAN), Yadav said the private schools had not followed the due process to hike fees and that they would be subjected to punishment as per the existing Education Act. [break]
“We are preparing to deploy monitoring teams in the field,” she said. “Anyone flouting the provisions while hiking tuition fees will be punished.”The GAN delegation led by its president Suprabhat Bhandari had reached Minister Yadav’s office at Kesharmahal to submit a memorandum.
As per the existing Education Regulations, private schools can hike the fees only after getting permission from the district education office concerned. The fee hike, if any, should be announced at least two months before the start of new academic session.
But the umbrella organizations of private schools across the country -- Private and Boarding School Organization, Nepal (PABSON) and National Private and Boarding School Organization, Nepal (N-PABSON) -- had increased the fee by 25 percent last week without following the process.
The fee hike comes in response to the government decision to enforce five percent Education Service Tax (EST).
Yadav said the government had no intention to impose additional burden on guardians and that the five percent EST was supposed to be taken from the profits earned by the school operators, not from the guardians. “Everyone should come within the ambit of the existing laws,” she added. “No one has the right to violate the laws.”
Presenting the memorandum to the education minister, Bhandari urged the government to stop private schools from increasing the fees. “We will be forced to take to the streets if the government failed to stop them from hiking fees in arbitrary manner,” he added.
GAN representatives vented their ire at the minister and other senior officials at the ministry for being unable to monitor private schools and to bring them within the ambit of laws.
They also criticized the government for failing to improve the quality of education in public schools. “The government has a feeling that those sending children to private schools are better off and that it can force the parents to bear with the tax,” said Bechan Kapar, Kathmandu district chapter vice-president of GAN. “But the government has never thought that parents are forced to send their children to private schools due to the lack of quality education in public schools.”
The association alleged that the private schools took unilateral decision to hike the fees. There were no representatives of GAN and teachers’ unions while taking the decision to hike the fees. “The decision is against the existing laws of the land,” he added.
On Tuesday, the GAN had appealed to parents not to pay the hiked fees.
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