On the 29th of July, during the Andhra Pradesh (AP) Assembly session, the AP Government passed the School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission Bill, 2019.
The Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP,) the Government of AP, passed the Bill, according to which, there will be a committee to maintain the standards of schools.
The commission will also take care of aspects like regulation of fee, skills of teachers, information disclosure, effective inspection, monitoring of schools and implementation of the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009.
Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the Chief Minister of AP, called the new Bill a “historic and revolutionary” one. He expressed regret over the inefficiency of the previous government in controlling the fee and its failure in regulating and managing corporate schools, which have been looting the citizens.
Jagan Mohan Reddy also said, “We just maintained silence, even though we aware of the daylight robbery of the private school managements in the State. The corporate school management and owners were the ministers in the previous government. That was the main reason why we were unable to control the incredulous fee structure in the State.”
According to the sources, the private schools have fees starting from Rs. 63,000 to Rs. 1 lakh for classes like LKG, UKG, first and second.
Highlighting the exorbitant fees, Jagan Mohan said, “If this fee structure continues, we may not even imagine about the education in our state in the near future.”
Jagan Mohan criticised the Telugu Desam Party (TDP,) the former Government of AP, for destroying the government schools’ structure in the State to make profits through private schools.
He also ordered the owners of private schools to provide 25 % of the seats to poor students, free of cost, under the RTE Act.
The commission, consisting of 11 experts, will be led by a retired High Court judge.
The commission will look after grading of schools, implementation of the RTE Act, accreditation of schools and monitoring of the educational institutions and other matters.
If any school refuses to follow the rules under the new Bill, the commission can shut down the institution.
The School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission Bill, 2019 will be implemented after it gets approval from the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.
Stay tuned for further updates.
