JAMSHEDPUR, April 8 -- East Singhbhum district administration has barred private schools from taking any readmission fee under any circumference while asserting that the school managements can't hike fees by more than 10% in an academic session and can't compel guardians to buy text books and uniform from any specific or prescribed shops, officials said on Tuesday. The moves comes in the wake of the Jharkhand education department directing all the district deputy commissioners (DCs), deputy superintendent of education (DSEs) and district education officers (DEOs) to ensure and activation of all the school level fee fixation committees and district level fee fixation committees in districts under their jurisdiction. "No schools will charge a readmission fee under any circumstance. They can't hike fees more than 10% every two years, and can't compel parents to buy textbooks and uniforms from any prescribed shop. The schools will have to form fee fixation committees and clearly display the members on notice boards inside the school premises. The school managements will have to clearly mention the heads under which fees are being taken - such as tuition fee, activity fee, miscellaneous fee etc," Karn Satyarthi, East Singhbhum DC, told the media, sharing the decisions taken in the district fee fixation committee on Monday. Officials said the district fee fixation committee also decided that the school managements will have to clarify as to how much activity fee, miscellaneous fee, exam fee etc they are charging, total earnings under such heads and how these amounts are being spent every year. "The schools have to furnish detailed account statements of earnings and expenditure for audit every year. The schools can't charge late fees arbitrarily and it will have to be uniform in all schools and can't charge compound interest. The education department will fix a uniform late fine for all schools. Schools can't rusticate students unable to pay fees for six months or a year on their own and will have to inform the district education department. Schools can't change textbooks repeatedly and arbitrarily and have to follow the CBSE and CISCE guidelines. Schools can't change uniforms every year and the education department will issue an advisory according to which uniforms can't be changed before a minimum of three years," the meeting decided. The DC also said that the district fee fixation committee also decided that the price of forms for the entry level (Nursery, UKG, LKG) will be uniform and fixed by the district education department. "The schools can sell textbooks, copies, uniforms, shoes and such things inside the school premises but can't compel parents to buy from there only or any prescribed shops," said Satyarthi. Interestingly, Mt View School proposed a 25% fee hike for this year during the meeting but the district level fee fixation committee didn't take any decision on that. BJP leader and founder of the 'Siksha Satyagraha' - an NGO - Ankita Anand, however, questioned the timing of the meeting. "Admission process is over in about 78-80 private schools in Jamshedpur, all the schools have taken the fees and even textbooks, copies, uniforms etc. have been bought by the parents already. And the meeting was held on Monday though the additional secretary of the state school education and literacy department had sent the directive to activate school level and district level fee fixation committees on March 11 last," Anand said....