The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday struck down the Government Orders (GOs) 53 and 54 issued in August this year aimed at regulating the fees in private schools and junior colleges.
The High Court has directed that the Andhra Pradesh School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission (APSERMC), following clause 8, should issue a fresh notification and elicit information from every private school and junior college in the State.
The court also directed the Commission to fix the new fee structure by March 2022. If the fee collected by the educational institutes was on the higher side of the ‘fee to be prescribed by the State government’, the institutes have to adjust the balance amount for next academic year, the High Court ordered.
‘No uniform fee’
High Court Judge U. Durga Prasada Rao, pronouncing the orders, said the State government cannot fix the fee based on the geographical location of the school or junior college.
A uniform fee cannot be charged for the institutes that were being run with international standards and the institutes with less infrastructural facilities.
It was not that easy to maintain the educational institutes.
On the other hand, it was necessary to protect the interests of students and parents. At this juncture, while fixing the fee structure, the Commission should take both institutes and parents into consideration.
‘No powers’
The Commission has only authority to regulate the fee but not fix the fee structure, he maintained.
East Godavari Private Schools Association president Dasari Durga Srinivasa Rao, Independent Schools Managements Association president K. Srikanth Babu, A.P. Private Unaided Schools Managements Association joint Secretary N. Srinivas Reddy and others challenged the fee structure fixed by the government.
