4 schools booked for high admit form, entrance fees

OUR private schools in Kathmandu Valley have been found to be flouting the provisions of the Private and Institutional Schools Operation Directives (2013) and a Supreme Court order. Separate teams from the District Education Offices of Kathmandu and Lalitpur, led by their respective District Education Officers (DEO), had conducted surprise checks at the schools. They found that the schools had charged entrance fees around five times higher than the rate fixed in the directives and the SC order. Paragon School and Pathshala Nepal from Kathmandu and Suvatara School and Rato Bangla School from Lalitpur were monitored on Thursday. According to Kathmandu DEO Baikuntha Aryal, Pathshala Nepal was found to have charged Rs 500 for admission form and the entrance fee while Paragon, which was imposing the same amount till Wednesday, had decreased the fees to Rs 125 after getting a clue about the inspection. “Both the schools were found to be flouting the legal provisions,” said Aryal. “They have given written commitments not to repeat their acts.” The schools have also agreed to return the overcharged sum to the respective student. Similarly, Suvatara School was charging Rs 500 and the DEO Lalitpur has sought a written clarification from the school a d m i• i s t r a t i o nð “Documents from the Rato Bangla School have been seized and further study is going on,” said Suprabhat Bhandari, chairman of Nepal Guardians’ Association, who is a member of a monitoring team. Following reports about the extortion, the Department of Education had directed the respective DEOs for the monitoring and to enforce the directives and the court order. A division bench of Justices Tahir Ali Ansari and Baidya Nath Upadhaya on May 23 last year directed all the concerned bodies not to charge more than Rs 25 for admission form and Rs 100 for the entrance test fee. It also directed the Prime Minister’s Office, the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Education to monitor the compliance of its order. Based on the verdict, the Department of Education, with consent from the organisations of private schools, had incorporated the provision in the new directives issued on February 19. However, owing to a lack of monitoring, most of the educational institutions are collecting hefty sums from students. The DoE had also directed the DEOs to book the offenders under the clause 17 (2) of Education Act.

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