Updated on: Friday, July 16, 2010
Patience seems to be running thin for most of the 150 matriculation schools in Tiruchi region that had sought re-consideration of the fee structure communicated to them at the start of the academic year by the Justice Govindarajan Committee.
The Committee that had earlier fixed the annual fee based on the location of the institution, the infrastructure, the faculty strength and other quality parameters accepted to take a re-look at the fee structure following an outcry from the private institutions.
Sticking to guns
The stand of the private schools has been that fee reduction would hamper the schools from hiking salaries for teachers and carrying out infrastructure development.
The schools that are not happy with the fee fixation were given the option of writing to the committee seeking reconsideration of fee structure within 15 days from the date of receiving the communication.
The committee promised to consider their case and reply to them within 30 days. According to an educationist who runs a private group of schools in the city, the delay on the part of the committee to notify the new fee structure was causing consternation.
A team of auditors appointed by the fee fixation committee to accord a serious consideration to appeals of deserving schools is expected to finalise the revised fee structure within the next fortnight, it is learnt.
The fee is likely to be hiked mostly on the basis of excellent infrastructure like ‘smart' classrooms and salaries paid to faculty, it is learnt.
It is only the self-financing schools that have borne the brunt.
Lack of complaints
Though most of the government-aided schools in and around Tiruchi had ‘informally' received amounts far exceeding the stipulated fee structure, there was little that the School Education Department could do, since there was no formal complaint from the parents' side.