New rules to regulate fees in private schools from 2017-18

Bengaluru, Dec 21: The final rules for fee regulation in private schools will be published by January, Primary and Secondary Education minister Tanveer Sait announced on Wednesday.

The draft rules with formulas to decide the fee for schools in different areas was made public in 2016. After running into some trouble in court, the state government amended the Karnataka Education Act to make fee regulation possible.

Sait told reporters that the final rules were almost ready and would come into effect in the 2017-18 academic year. He said that schools which have already completed admissions and collected fees will be scrutinised and may be asked to refund money if the fee collected is more than what is allowed.

The land norms for setting up schools have also been modified and the notification will be issued soon. For a school with classes upto higher secondary, that is class I to XII, in the BBMP limits, the land required is 2,000 square metres. Outside BBMP, it is 4,000 square metres.

Earlier, only these two slabs existed. Under the new rules, to set up a school with class I to X, the requirement is 1,500 sq m in BBMP limits and 3,000 sqm elsewhere.

For a school with class I to VIII, it is 1,000 sqm in BBMP limits and 2,000 in other places. For pre-primary institutions such as kindergarten, creches and daycare centres, the norm is set at one square metre per child.

In the lead up to the SSLC examinations in 2017, several school and headmasters' associations had been conducting preparatory exams without permission. Sait said that they would streamline the process by framing guidelines.

"At present, the examination board does not have the manpower to conduct preparatory examinations. So we will frame certain terms and conditions," he said.

The minister said that the difference in the number of candidates who registered and those who appeared for the SSLC exams in the past could be because of students who had shortage of attendance or it could be private candidates who did not attend.

"I don't deny that in the absence of a system, the given number was taken as granted. Now, we have the Student Achievement Tracking System (SATS) which is also linked to Aadhaar. We have plugged all issues and there can't be any duplication," he said.