COMMERCIALISING EDUCATION

The Kathmandu Post

23 April 2017

COMMERCIALISING EDUCATION

 Private schools are doing business in the name of imparting quality education. All of them charge varying fees without any basis. This year, they have increased their school fees by more than 150 percent. In May 23, 2015, the Supreme Court (SC) prohibited the government and all stakeholders from hiking up their school fees for another three years. None of the schools seemed to have followed this instruction, and the Ministry of Education (MoE) does not seem serious about implementing the SC’s directives. As a result, private schools have been charging extravagant fees, making the education in the private schools increasingly unaffordable for the middle-class.

It was encouraging to read a news story at a time when most private schools have increased their school fees in this new session (“Student unions want pvt school fees regulated” April 19, Page 02). My granddaughter is studying in a private school and recently we received her bill for the first month of the new session. The fees were much higher than in the previous year. We were given no breakdown of the fees, or any specific reasons for this increase. This is an example of the monopoly that private schools have; they should be strictly monitored and lawfully punished if they are found charging more than the permitted amount of fees.

The student unions deserve appreciation for asking the MoE to act according to the SC’s directives. The government does not a have proper supervision and monitoring system in place. As a result, these private schools have been pocketing huge amount of money through school fees. Who is to blame for this unruly activity of the private schools?

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharajgunj.

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2017-04-23/commercialising-education.html