Schools face huge fine for capitation fee ………Seethalakshmi S & Shruthi Balakrishna
Bangalore: Heres a shocker for schools across the country. If theyre collecting capitation fees, they must pay 10 times the amount collected from parents as penalty. With the passage of the Right to Education Bill 2009, the government is all set to tighten school admission norms, to the relief of lakhs of parents who have been worrying about forking out hefty donations for their childs admission. Once the Centre issues the notification,the National Commission for Protection of Child Rightsthe monitoring authority to implement the Bill in totowill look into all the complaints. The modalities are yet to be worked out, sources told TOI. Theres further trouble for schools that are found conducting interviews in the name of interaction before admitting children. This will attract a fine of between Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000. The Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday,will now go to the human resource development ministry for final notification.
Although many state education laws forbid donations, they have largely remained on paper. Year after year, many schools collect huge capitation fees in the guise of development funds, and parents have no choice but to cough up the money.
Some school principals told TOI that they dont charge capitation fees or take donations. But some did admit to charging hefty fees to repay loans invested in the schools development. Land is expensive in Bangalore. Schools must invest more if they want to provide quality in addition to adequate infrastructure. How will they get the money back if they dont charge capitation fees? asked the principal of a reputed school, speaking on condition of anonymity. He added, Suppose we give admission without taking the capitation fee and later request the parents to contribute, then no one will volunteer. So a few schools charge at the time of admission.
At Bishop Cotton GirlsSchool,the fee is based on the fee structure. We charge an infrastructure and development fee but its only a one-time contribution at the time of admission, said principal Princess Franklyn. Edu bill: Cost sharing yet to be worked out
Bangalore: With the Centre stating that the cost of ensuring education for all children will be shared by the Union government and states, implementing the Right To Education will cost the states heavily. Principal secretary R G Nadadur said details about sharing the cost would become clear only after the rules were framed. Sharing can be done through either new programmes or existing ones. For instance, for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the present sharing ratio is 60:40 (for the Centre and state governments respectively). Similarly, the midday meal scheme is 70:30, he said.
In response to the provisions of the Bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, that penalise schools for charging capitation fees or conducting interviews before admitting children, the National Public School (NPS) group of institutions noted that it charges no capitation fee. For the last 50 years we
havent taken any capitation fee, K P Gopalkrishna, the groups chairman, said.
Schools maintained they had no screening procedures for parents/guardians or children. For instance, at Bishop Cotton Girls School, at the time of admission, parents apply, then applications are categorised, students are shortlisted, and finally parents are informed. Only at the last stage do we meet the parents, said principal Princess Franklyn.