Andhra Assembly Clears Bill To Regulate School Fees; Jagan Says Private Schools Extorting Parents

A bill to set up a mechanism to regulate school fees was cleared by the legislative assembly of Andhra Pradesh on Monday (29 July), reports ANI. The Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission Bill ostensibly aims to decrease the financial burden of education on school-going children’s parents.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy claimed that the condition of government schools had been allowed to continuously deteriorate under the previous administration, while private schools were given complete liberty to extort fees out of parents.

"This is a historic bill. The education system in the state is collapsed to such a level that private schools are collecting exorbitant fees yet nobody can question them. There was a minister in the past government who owns such a big group of educational institutes. When such a tycoon is in the ministerial position, how can one control the fees? The government schools in the states are diluted in a planned manner," he said.

He added that the government would establish a Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission in order to monitor the fees structure of private schools and make sure provisions of the Right to Education Act, such as providing 25 per cent of seats to students without charging fees.

The said commission will also be empowered to impose fines, issue warnings, and if necessary, even direct schools to shut down.