Temperatures soared high as Principals- Parents met under DM directive to discuss fee hike
Ashish Kedia
(Photo/Video :Lokesh Goswami)
District Magistrate Brijesh Narayan Singh has called for a meeting between parents and Principals representing different schools of the district. The meeting took place at conference hall of DM office on Monday afternoon.
To start the meeting DM Brijesh Narayan Singh read out the guidelines issued by the state authorities and said that he will come to any conclusion or take any decision based only and only on these rules. He clearly said that consumer centric aspects of this debate as well as any infrastructural issues should be raised at appropriate concerned forums and must be kept out of this discussion.
My duty to oversee implementation of State guidelines, says DM
Setting the ground rules clear DM stated, “There is always a regulatory body in every field. Even in open market everything is controlled and governed. Nothing can be open-ended. There are standards for everything as well as appropriate regulators. If fee hike issue has become unbearable and people are protesting we have to look towards administrative regulations”
Speaking further he said, “There is a direct control of administration. CBSE says if there is violation of norms issued by the state government, they can derecognize the institute. What CBSE does is their prerogative but bringing it to their notice is our responsibility. Also this has become a law and order issue and administration will take necessary steps to resolve it”.
Principal’s mention hike in salary of teachers, Parents retort with student-teacher ratio:
Asha Prabhakar from Bal Bharti School said, ‘Fee hike is a prerogative of the school managing committee to decide the fee structure, as per CBSE bylaws. This is also done keeping in mind the directives of district administration as well as CBSE guidelines that come from time to time.”
She also said that fee hike has to be in tandem with establishment cost as well as the hike in DA, which has been to the tune of 13% in last year.
However this argument was rebuked from parent’s side by citing the student-teacher ratio and acknowledging the hike in fee of every individual student to justify salaries of way less teachers.
DM Brijesh Narayan Singh has now given three day time to parents to submit a detailed report of all their grievances that fall under the state guideline. He has also said that schools will be provided with 7 to 10 days of time to submit their reply on these concerns.
The district magistrate has said that he will reach to any conclusion only after going through submissions of both side and will then take necessary actions on the same.
