Even after four years, the government has not been able to enact a law to control the fees of private schools in Himachal Pradesh. The government, which claims to have made the law, has not been able to take this exercise further from the files. For this reason, this year also private schools have increased the fees by five to ten percent. Instead of amending the State Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Act 1997, the claims of enacting a law to control the fees have remained on hold. Parents have urged Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to tighten the noose on private schools on the lines of neighboring Delhi and Punjab.
Despite the school closure in the year 2020 during the Corona crisis, private schools started the process of collecting fees. There were protests across the state. During that time the government had decided to take only tuition fees for the period of school closure. When the school opened in the same year, private schools also started collecting the waived tuition fees of the previous months. The government did not take any action against these schools at that time.
In 2021, the government talked about making a law to control fees. It was said that under the new law, the fees of private schools would be determined in a committee to be formed under the chairmanship of the District Deputy Commissioner. Apart from private school management, PTA will be included in the committee. A committee headed by the Director of Higher Education will approve the fees. Additional director and director of elementary education will be included in the committee. The committee will monitor the system of fee collection in schools.
Under the new law, while rationalizing the fees, claims were also made to ban the arrangement of shops marked to buy uniforms and books. From the Education Minister to the departmental officials, it was said that while fixing the fees, care would be taken that the fees should not be exploitative of the parents, but in reality nothing like this happened. Due to the failure of the government, this year also many private schools have increased the fees arbitrarily. From the officials to the education minister, they are hesitant to say anything about the matter.
