BHUBANESWAR: Raising their voice over fee hike in private schools Odisha Parent Associations' Forum (OPAF) on Saturday came out to streets and demanded a regulatory body to monitor them. They urged the state government to formulate a separate law to regulate school fees "Most of the schools are following the Supreme Court recommendations of 15% hike every year, which would double in three years. But schools have been increasing the fees by manifold violating the apex court guidelines due to any controlling or regulatory authority over them," said co-convenor of the forum Sanjukta Panigrahi. They said states like Gujarat, Delhi and Maharashtra have already passed legislations to this effect.Hundreds of parents belonging to different private schools came out in a rally from Master canteen Square and staged demonstration in front of the Assembly."In class III we used to pay Rs 1400 per month while in class IV the fee increased to Rs 2710, about 93% hike in a year. The school authorities did not even given any notice for the hike and it really affected us. When we approached them they said we would waive off the annual admission fee of Rs 5000 but pay as per the hiked rate. We don't raise our voice fearing harassment of our kids," said a parent.The parents have also demanded to impose a proper ceiling limit of fees and abolition of different stages and maintain uniformity from LKG to Class X. They also demanded clarification of fee structure categorising them as urban and rural area. They also said there should be one-time collection of infrastructure development fee instead of every month. Besides, there should also be uniformity in admission charges."Running a private school has become a profit-making business in Odisha. Due to lack of proper monitoring by the state government most of the schools are not following guidelines like appointing trained teachers and paying them proper salary, which is also affecting the quality of education," said Mahendra Parida of the forum.They alleged that though the state government had announced several times to constitute a regulatory authority for private schools but no steps have been taken so far."The private school lobby is very strong and the government is under tremendous pressure not to regulate or monitor the schools," said an agitating parent.However, the private school authorities denied the allegations. "The accounts of private schools have been audited every year and the schools are not making any profit from the school fees," said director of a private school.Government officials were not available for comments.

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