With the new government in place, parents are demanding the implementation of a fee regulation mechanism. They have been fighting for this for the past ten years and are upset that the previous government did not take any steps in that direction.
According to the Andhra Pradesh Education Act, every school should have a parents committee. The same act was adopted by the Telangana government, but it was never implemented. Despite several meetings with the authorities, parents only received empty promises. Now, they are demanding the new government to come up with a concrete plan to regulate private school fees in a timely manner, especially since the admission season has already begun.
Parents and parent associations like HSPA allege that schools increase fees as they please, without a scientific approach. HSPA has been demanding the categorization of schools, similar to professional colleges, for the fixation of different fee structures under the supervision of the Telangana Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC). Without proper regulation, private schools take advantage and parents suffer.
HSPA wants schools to be categorized based on their infrastructure and faculty. They also want a maximum upper limit for fees, which should be scrutinized by the State Level School Fee Regulation Committee (SLFRC). Additionally, they believe that fees should be fixed for three academic years.
K Venkat Sainath, joint secretary of HSPA, stated that they have filed a contempt case against the government this year for not implementing a fee regulation mechanism despite court orders. However, the previous government simply re-printed what was already in the Andhra Pradesh Education Act (APEA).
