Private schools will now have to declare their assets, fee structure

It is going to be difficult for private schools to inflate fees, ask for donations and terminate students on the basis of performance as Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani is going to ask some serious questions now.

The HRD ministry is working towards bringing more transparency in the education system and asking private as well as government schools to make a couple of disclosures.

The schools, which offer global standard facilities and hire well qualified teachers, will now have to inform the government about their assets, fee structure, admission procedure and their faculty’s qualification and make a legislation to introduce student friendly measures.

The five key proposals of the bill are:
(a) Asking all schools to declare fee components on their websites
(b) Notify their admission process clearly and well in advance
(c) Disclose assets
(d) Give full information on teachers' educational backgrounds
(e) Disallow schools from charging full year's fees from students who change schools before the academic year ends.

The bill will not set any benchmark but would only bring transparency in the functioning of the schools and check the malpractices.

An official, on the condition of anonymity, told Economic Times, "We are working on a legislation to check malpractices across schools. The idea is to check unduly inflated fees...we do not intend to regulate fees, but push for greater transparency through full disclosure of fees, teachers' qualifications, assets and activities. We will take into account the views of all stakeholders and private schools and will soon start discussions."

The new law also intends to prevent schools from forcibly turning away or terminating the admission of a child for reasons like 'non-performance'. It also looks forward to have a provision which emphasizes that termination on such grounds puts a student at considerable disadvantage.

Under the legislation, full disclosure of teachers' qualification will be mandatory, which will weed out under-qualified teachers. The ministry is working on a set of benchmarks for teacher recruitment and all schools will have to follow them. Former HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had initiated action on checking 'unfair practices' in the education system, but his efforts were focused on higher education.

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