Wishy washy response from officials to complaint over excess charging in colleges draws criticism

An equivocal response from the Directorate of Collegiate Education to a complaint over collection of illegal fees by private and government-aided colleges submitted to the Chief Minister’s Special Cell has elicited criticism from the petitioner and activists.

The complaint, sent to the CM’s Cell on May 29, said that several private and government-aided colleges were collecting additional amounts from students under various heads, including Development Fee, Special Fee, Infrastructure Fee, Placement Fee, Donation, Lab Maintenance, and Compulsory Hostel Fee. The practice was quite widespread in the State and went against the very essence of education as a fundamental right, the petition read.

The memorandum requested the government to make it mandatory for all private and government-aided colleges to display the complete fee structure approved by the government or the university to which they are affiliated to, prominently on notice boards and publish them on their respective websites as well.

The government, it stated, should issue a circular clearly stating that no additional fee should be collected. Violations should be met with de-recognition or de-affiliation of the erring institutions.

The response, undersigned by R. Raman, Joint Director of Collegiate Education (Finance), stated under the ‘Summary of Action Taken’ column: “I would like to inform you that a policy decision has been taken by the Government regarding the details of the aforementioned grievance.”

It wasn’t clear as to what the policy decision of the government was. “What is the policy? Can there be a policy to permit excess fee?” asks Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary, State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN).

Section 28 of the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges (Regulation) Act, 1976 clearly prohibited private colleges from levying fees other than “a fee, charge, or payment specified by the competent authority”, he pointed out. Besides, there was the Tamil Nadu Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Collection of Capitation Fee) Act, 1992 as well that bans collection of capitation fees by educational institutions. The response vaguely referring to a policy decision of the government without providing any details defeats the very purpose of transparency, Mr. Prince averred.

“Parents are wary of backlash from the institutions and are not willing to file complaints over excess charging,” says S. Pandikumar, the petitioner who is also a lawyer. This was the primary reason why the institutions got away with such offences, he said.

The Higher Education department failed to ensure compliance, either because the mechanism has been rendered toothless due to corruption or because of political pressures, Dr. Pandikumar added.