• Stakeholders doubt KMC can implement the rule effectively

Kathmandu, April 10 Kathmandu Metropolitan City has come up with maximum fee that the private schools operating under its jurisdiction may charge students for the new academic session, which is set to begin later this month. The KMC, in a bid to effectively impose the rule, has classified schools into categories A, B, C and D. KMC’s officials said the categories were made on the basis of 54 indicators like physical infrastructure, special training and academic achievements of the schools. Similar categories of private schools were also made by district education offices under the Department of Education. Other factors of classification of schools include school’s land area and building, availability of playground, toilet, library, laboratory, number of students and teachers, provision of scholarships, number of female teachers,  academic achievements of students, hostel facilities and child- friendly classrooms. As per the new rule, schools under category ‘D’ will not be allowed to charge students of Grade I to V a monthly fee more than Rs 1,630; the monthly fee for schools under category ‘C’ shall not exceed Rs 2,024 for the same grades; the monthly fee for schools under category ‘B’ shall not exceed Rs 2,418 for the same grades category; and the monthly fee for schools under category ‘A’ shall not exceed Rs 2,812 for students of elementary level. For the students of Grade VI to VIII, schools under category ‘D’ cannot charge more than Rs 1,901 from a student per month, schools under category ‘C’ not more than Rs 2,351 from a student per month, those under category ‘B’ not more than Rs 2,801 from a student per month and the ones under category ‘A’ not more than Rs 3,251 from a student per month. For the students of Grade IX and X, the schools under category ‘D’ will not be permitted to charge a monthly fee more than Rs 2,537, category ‘C’ schools Rs 3,149, category ‘B’ schools Rs 3,762 and category ‘A’ schools Rs 4,373 per student. Stakeholders doubt that KMC can effectively implement the rule. Suprabhat Bhandari, co-coordinator of Federation of Nepali Guardians said though it was wise to set the maximum fee amount a school may charge, KMC had reached the decision without any research. He added that the implementation of the fee rule would be challenging until the local levels adopted stringent measures against schools violating it. Nirmala KC, head of KMC’s Education Department, expressed confidence in effective implementation of the rule. KC, however, said that since private schools can fix monthly fee structure following an approval from the two-thirds of its guardians, some private schools were charging higher tuition fee.