Private Schools in Odisha settle for fee waiver; panel informs High Court

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.

A joint committee of representatives of private schools, parents' association and the Odisha Government, which was formed on the direction of the High Court to resolve the issue of fee hike, has recommended that a maximum waiver of 26 per cent if the annual fee is above Rs 1 lakh. The joint committee submitted the report to a division bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice B R Sarangi.

The bench completed hearing on petitions seeking a 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 1 lakh, the highest slab.

The joint committee also recommended a waiver of 30 per cent in hostel fees. However, any institution that has not increased any fees consecutively for the last two years will not be covered under this scheme. On September 2, the division bench had 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.

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