No capitation fee or screening in schools: Minister

No capitation fee should be collected or screening held for a child by schools for giving admission, Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said.

The Minister recently said a school or individual should not collect any capitation fee or subject a child or the parents to any sort of screening or entrance test as per clause 13 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

Mr. Sivankutty said if any school or individual did receive capitation fee in violation of the RTE Act, they would be fined 10 times the capitation fee charged.

If a child were made to undergo a screening process, the first violation would attract a fine of up to ₹25,000 and subsequent ones up to ₹50,000 for each offence.

Mr. Sivankutty said the government had received a number of complaints. Blatant violation of the rules could not be allowed. The government would start monitoring the situation. Making arrangements to meet the expenses in running a school was fine, but the mentality that a school was more profitable than some other venture could not be accepted, the Minister said.