English medium schools’ session fees illegal: HC

Session fees are illegal for English medium schools, the High Court said today while issuing a set of directives for running the institutions in a transparent manner.

It said that a committee must be formed for English medium schools under the private (English medium) school and college ordinance 1962 and private English medium school registration rule 2007.

The managing committee will be formed with the guardians, teachers and institution authorities. The managing committee will appoint the teachers and staff for the institution through publishing advertisement in the newspapers and will determine their salaries and benefits.

The English medium students must be given lesson about Bangla language, education, culture and heritage, history of Bangladesh including the contribution of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and freedom fighters.

The school authorities must organise functions on the occasions of the national days.

The managing committee of the English medium institution will fix the admission fee for the students, the HC said. It also said that the audit report of the English medium school will be made available in website and for the guardians of the students. The owners of the institution cannot interfere in the functions of the school.

The school will give lesson on Bangle language to the student so that the student can learn, say and write in Bangla fluently. The HC bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and justice Md Badruzzaman came up with the verdict after hearing two separate writ petitions filed by two guardians of English medium students in 2014 challenging the legality of charging session’s fee from the students.

Petitioner’s lawyer Barrister Badruddoza Badal and Barrister Aneek R Haque and Advocate K R Khan Robin told The Daily Star that the English medium school authority have to charge admission fee from a student following the HC verdict.

The Education Ministry has to issue a circular containing the HC directive within a month and submit a compliant report within 6 months to the HC.

Source: thedailystar