Schools charged with demanding high admission fees

Statesman News Service

MALDA, June 2: The state school education minister Mr Partha De has asked the district inspector of secondary schools in Malda to take ‘stern action’ against those school management which were found guilty of charging excessive admission fees from unwilling students. The minister, it was learnt has received several complaints from various corners regarding collection of excessive admission fees for class V. According to the minister's directive, the fees of the students have been fixed at Rs 75 for urban students and Rs 63 for rural students. It should be noted that various schools including reputed ones in English Bazaar town, Malda had charged between Rs 500 to Rs 700 from guardians at the time of admission to class V without issuing money receipts this year.The Malda D I Mr Chinmay Sarkar had informed the matter to the minister Mr Partha De when he had come to Malda for the rural poll campaign. Mr Sarkar said, “I will send letters to the school authorities asking them to return the excess money they charged from ‘unwilling’ students within seven days from the date of receipt of the letter. If the school authorities do not carry out the order, we will stop granting aid to the offending schools,” Mr Sarkar said. The Malda D I has prepared an inspection report of a reputed girls high school in English Bazaar town on the basis of various complaints against the school authorities. It was decided not to release the salary of the school.