Indian Citizen Council wrote to Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Human Resources Development, and argued in favour of such a commission.
Amidst protests against fee hike in various private schools, Indian Citizen Council (ICC), Noida, on April 7 wrote to Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Human Resources Development, and urged him to form a regulatory commission for private educational institutes.
In the letter, ICC stated that there were regulatory commissions monitoring activities of different sectors such as IT, real estate and banking in the country. But there was no body entrusted with the responsibility of controlling private educational institutes.
ICC argued that education plays a crucial role in one’s development but almost all educational institutes have become money-making machines. They enjoy several kinds of subsidies such as income tax exemption and government allotting them land on concessionary rates. These private institutions have been exploiting common men by charging schools and other fees exorbitantly.
PS Jain, president of ICC, told City Spidey, “As there is no initiative on the government’s part to stop private educational institutes from digging in to parents’ pockets, I proposed the central government to bring such institutes under the control of a regulatory commission. The commission will put a cap on the maximum fees charged under different categories.”
He said, “Private institutes should be told to produce a balance sheet of their expenditures and the government should bring their annual profit under the income tax net.”
He pointed out that most private institutions are being run by trusts who claim that they are non-profit making organisations. By registering the schools under the trust, they enjoy tax exemption on their profit. “The government should scrap this benefit,” he said.
“Fees collected from students under different categories should be deposited in a bank account and the trustee should be restricted from transferring the income to the trust’s bank account. An audit of an institute should be conducted and the findings should be made public,” he added.
ICC has also sent a copy of the letter to the offices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (independent charge) Dr Mahesh Sharma and Noida MLA Pankaj Singh.
