Pvt School Admission Fees
HC says charging extras illegal
The High court on Thursday declared excess fees charged by private schools while admitting students to Class 1 in the 2011–2012 academic session as illegal.
The alleged irregularities came to light during the hearing of a mandamus writ petition filed by the Campaign for Popular Education executive director Rasheda K Chowdhury and the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust deputy director Farida Yasmin.
The court in its order made it mandatory for the authorities of all the private schools to follow the government’s guidelines with regard to students’ admission fees, session fees and other fees, not exceeding Tk 5,000 in the capital.
Mandamus is a judicial remedy — in the form of an order from a superior court to take specific and obligatory action under the law or refrain from doing certain things as a statutory duty.
The court said it would monitor the case and the aggrieved people could prefer contempt petitions in the High Court against schools flouting a circular issued by the education ministry on December 14, 2011 spelling out the admission fee guidelines.
The court issued the directive as the government failed to take action against the erring schools and colleges.
An education ministry inspection team in its report submitted to the bench said
that 24 schools and colleges in the capital had charged excess fees from the students flouting the 2011 admission guidelines.
The ministry report said that Motijheel Ideal School and College, and Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, alone admitted that they charged excess fees and made a pledge to return the additional amount or adjust it.
The guideline prohibits charging more than Tk 5,000 from a student in the capital as admission, session and other fees.
It set the admission and other fees for a student in other metropolitan areas at Tk 3,000, for district towns Tk 2,000, upazila towns at Tk 1,000 and for the rural areas at Tk 500.
A bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Zafar Ahmed issued the directives after hearing the writ petition.
The petitioners challenged the legality of schools charging as much as Tk 8,000 to Tk 25,000 at the time of admission from each student in the name of donations for various purposes, flouting the guidelines set by the government.
Supreme Court lawyer Sara Hossain and Ashraful Hadi appeared for the petitioners while deputy attorney general Mokhlesur Rahman for the state.
Following the writ petition, the HC on January 9, 2012 directed the authorities to submit a report to it specifying actions taken by them so far against errand schools and colleges.
In compliance with the HC order, in December 2012, an education ministry inspection team in its report submitted to the bench said that 24 schools and colleges in the capital had charged excess fees from the students flouting the 2011 admission guidelines.
The report was based on inspection of 32 institutions by the directorate general of secondary and higher education, the submitted to the bench.
Eight of the institutions charged less than Tk 5,000, 10 charged between Tk 5,000 and Tk 10,000, and 14 charged more than Tk 10,000, according to the inspection report prepared in January 2012.
Of the institutions, 16 are in Dhaka, 10 in Chittagong, 12 in Feni, four in Kushtia and one each in Rajshahi, Jessore and Lalmonirhat, it said.
It said that most of the renowned schools and colleges were among the 24 institutions that charged additional fees.
In December 2012, the ministry suspended the monthly pay order for the principal of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College Manju Ara Begum from November 2012 onwards and asked her to explain in seven days why her MPO benefits would not be cancelled, the ministry report said.
It also directed the directorate general of secondary and higher education to take action against Motijheel Ideal School and College.
The ministry report submitted in the court, however, did not say whether actions were taken against other erring schools and colleges.
-With New Age input
