India News | Odisha Private Schools Settle for Fee Waiver, Panel Tells HC
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. A joint committee comprising representatives of private schools, parents' associations and the Odisha government, formed on the advice of the high court to resolve the fee hike issue, on Tuesday recommended a maximum waiver of 26 per cent if the annual fee is above Rs one lakh.
Cuttack, Sep 29 (PTI) A joint committee comprising representatives of private schools, parents' associations and the Odisha government, formed on the advice of the high court to resolve the fee hike issue, on Tuesday recommended a maximum waiver of 26 per cent if the annual fee is above Rs one lakh.
A report in this regard was submitted by the joint committee to a division bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice B R Sarangi.
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The bench completed hearing on petitions seeking waiver of school fees and reserved its verdict.
The joint committee recommended different rates of fee cut in either tuition fees or composite fees under seven slabs.
There will be no waiver if the annual fee of a private school is less than Rs 6,000.
It suggested a maximum waiver of 26 per cent where the annual school fee is above Rs one lakh, the highest slab.
The joint committee also recommended a waiver of 30 per cent in hostel fees.
However, any institute which has not increased fees consecutively for the last two years will not be covered in this scheme.
The division bench on September 1 asked the principal secretary of the School and Mass Education Department to convene a meeting of the representatives of private schools and parents' association to resolve the school fee row, while adjudicating over a batch of writ petitions.
At least three PILs are now pending disposal in the high court pertaining to the common prayer of judicial intervention into what they called "arbitrary" decisions of private schools to hike fees though the institutes remained closed since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic while several others are taking classes online.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)