Can't monitor PTA election, fee hike meets in city schools

The deputy director of school education, Pune, recently issued a circular for schools in the region to follow and implement the Fee Regulation Act (FRA) 2011. However, the deputy director of school education, Mumbai, said his department won't send education officials to every PTA election or during the fee hike meetings as it doesn't have enough staff. Officials will only be sent to schools where there are issues, he added.

According to the FRA, proceedings of the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) meetings and fee hike proposal must be video-taped and made available to the regional deputy director or education office.

President of Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE) Jayant Jain said, "We want the education department to send notices to all those schools that have hiked their fees in 2016-17. Also, circulars should be sent to schools to do video-recording of the fee hike proposal meeting and election of PTA and then send the same to the deputy director's office."

However, deputy director of school education BB Chavan said, "We won't be able to do what Pune deputy director has done in our region — sending such a circular or our officer to see whether the PTA formation in all schools and fee hike are being done in a transparent manner or video-taped. But we will send our officers to schools where there are controversies."