Chief Minister N Rangasamy assured the assembly on Saturday that the Union Territory government was planning steps and hoping to regulate the fee structure in private schools of the UT from this year.
Earlier AIADMK’s A Anbazhagan had posed questions about government’s step to control the escalating monitory demands made by private schools in the UT. In reply, the power and education minister, T Thiagarajan, said that the administration had proposed to amend rule 64 of Pondicherry School Education Rules of 1996 to regulate the fees structure in private schools by constituting a committee under the chairmanship of a retired High Court judge.
Anbazhagan cited that every year the same announcement is made by the government and ignored subsequently. In contrast, the Tamil Nadu government had taken proper steps and regulated the fees structure in private schools in the state.
There are 730 private schools and 410 government schools in Puducherry where 1.30 lakh to 1.50 lakh students are studying in private schools and 1.10 lakh students in government schools. Some of the private schools are collecting huge amounts as donation and fees.
Chief minister expressed the need for regulation and cited the instance of a school collecting `1 lakh for admission in LKG, which he said cannot be tolerated. At the same time, CM also urged people to consider government schools which he claimed was at par with the private schools in terms of quality, instead of queueing up before private schools. Rangasamy said that standard of education in Karaikal region had also enhanced and good results are coming from the region. Refuting that, Anbazahgan said while scarcity of teachers is being faced in rural areas there are 13 teachers in a school with only 28 students in his Oupplam constituency.
Anbazahgan also pointed out that a teacher of Embalm government school was assaulted by another teacher with some outsiders inside school and raised questions about actions taken by the government in the matter. Welfare minister P Rajavelu replied that the incident was a sequel to an Attiya-Pattiya match and action is being initiated in the case.
Congress members E Valsaraj and Malladi Krishna Rao also questioned the actions taken by the UT government to implement the Compulsory Education Act.
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