Kathmandu, May 31

The Department of Education today directed all District Education Offices across the country to take action against private schools flouting directives regarding fee fixation.

Baikuntha Aryal, spokesperson, DoE, today said most of the schools monitored by the high-level monitoring teams led by joint-secretaries from the Ministry of Education were found charging exorbitant fees against the government directives.

“Therefore, the DoE has directed the DEOs to take action against such schools as per the Education Act,” said Aryal.

The schools will be asked to furnish their clarification by June 12. “If the clarification so furnished is not found satisfactory, the DEOs shall fine them and either return the hiked fee to parents or adjust the hiked fee next month,” he added.

A meeting of Central Fee Fixation and Monitoring Committee had recommended the DoE to take action against schools charging exorbitant fees.

Some of the private schools monitored had claimed that they had forwarded their fee structures to the concerned authority.In such cases, the DoE has directed the DEOs to verify whether their claims are true.

The directives have set 32 minimum standards on school operation and human resources management, management of learning facilities and teaching learning and evaluation standards.

Similarly, it also talks about the limitation of expenditure and fixation of fee structure, fee endorsement and approval process and scholarship distribution, among other things.

As per the directives, the monthly fee for each grade should be endorsed by two thirds majority of parents.

Similarly, based on the monthly fee, admission fee should not exceed monthly fee, annual fee should not exceed tuition fees for two months, examination fee should not exceed half the monthly fee, fee for the educational materials should not exceed ten per cent of the annual tuition fees.

DoE has also directed the DEOs to direct private schools to return fees that have been charged under various titles not mentioned in the directives.