The District Education Office was alarmed when a complaint was filed against Janahit Higher Secondary School at Khanalthok- 8 which has been allegedly charging Rs 2000 per certificate. [break]
“It is mandatory to charge Rs 200 for the original SLC certificate and character certificate. The district education committee allows the schools to charge up to Rs 500 for the certificates,” said Shalikram Ghimire, the district education chief. “In no condition a school can charge above Rs 500 per certificate.”
“In fact, the school is not willing to provide us the certificate as it wants us to continue studying there only. That is why it has fixed a prohibitive fee for the certificate,” said the students who had gathered outside the school office to get their certificates. “The school does not have tourism and hotel management courses that most of us want to study. They offer only education and management subjects,” they added.
More than half of the 36 students who passed SLC from the school want to study +2 somewhere else. Recently, 9 of them got their certificates by paying as much as the school demanded.
According to the school, the decision to charge extra fee was made by the guardian´s committee and not the school administration. “It is basically for the school resources,” said a teacher Kunchandra Khanal. Khanal stressed that the students were willingly paying the charge. “All the students are paying the fees willingly as it was a decision made by the guardians. Only few students, who might have been instigated, are complaining,” he said.
On the other hand, Ghimire said that it is illegal to make the students pay extra fees beyond what has been prescribed by the controller´s office and education committee. The district education office is gearing up to take action against them, he said.
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