School Corner

The state government has sought clarifications from the Madras high court in its May 3 order permitting 400 petitioner schools to collect 15 per more fee than that fixed by the School Fee Determination Committee headed by Justice K. Raviraja Pandian.

The deputy secretary of the state school education department, S. Vadarathinam, stated that there was some confusion in the order about collection of fees for academic year 2012-13.

Vadarathinam justified his miscellaneous petition by submitting that the petition arose as parents and students were confused by “distorted” reportage of the judgement by a section of the media.

The state prayed for making it mandatory for schools covered by the court order to display in their notice board the case number, fees fixed by the committee earlier and revised fee to be collected according to the order.

The government also wanted the schools to indicate that the enhanced fee would be subject to the outcome of the committee’s final decision and that schools not covered under the court order should collect only the fees as determined by the committee.It also asked that receipts be issued for the fees collected.

The court remitted the matter back to the Pandian committee and permitted 400 petitioner schools to collect 15 per cent more than the fee fixed by the committee by setting aside the individual orders of the committee that fixed a ceiling for collection of fees by private minority and non-minority schools.