more-in Following a spate of protests by parents, various private school associations in the State have decided to form a self-regulatory body to ensure that schools comply with rules and regulations that include keeping a check on fee hike. This decision was taken during a meeting attended by several private school managements’ associations on Friday. D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Managements’ of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said the regulatory body will look into various issues such as exorbitant fee hikes by school managements and implementation of Kannada as the first or second language as mandated in the Kannada Language Learning Act 2016. As many as 7,000 schools are under the umbrella of four private school associations in the State. Association members will lodge a complaint with the officials of the Department of Public Instruction against erring school managements. “In many instances, parents do not come forward to lodge complaints as they feel their child will be targeted. This move is to ensure that complaints reach the Education Department,” a member of the management of a school said. According to Mr. Kumar, the associations will also visit schools and ensure that the fee structure is displayed on the notice board as per the rules. “Another area of concern is that many school managements are collecting excess fees from parents for books and uniforms. While collecting around ?8,000 to ?10,000 is acceptable, they should be penalised for anything more than this,” he said. V.R.N. Reddy, president, Karnataka Unaided Schools’ Management Association, said there was a need to set up a nodal officer in the State who can address the grievances of private school managements. An official of the Education Department said that while this was a welcome move, the sole grievance redressal and penalty mechanism lied with the department and urged parents to approach them if they found school managements violating norms.

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