Donations banned across schools

The ban,which is already in place in the primary schools,has now been extended to all the secondary and higher secondary schools across Gujarat.

In a harshly worded order posted on the website of Education Department,the government threatened to cancel recognition and registration of the schools found violating the Friday’s order.

This comes following complaints from parents that self-financed and even some grant-in-aid schools in the state were charging hefty amounts on the pretext of development fee,according to officials.

Though charging capitation and development fee from the students was already listed as a serious offence in the Gujarat State Secondary Education Act of 1972 and 1974,the provisions,according to the notification,were rampantly violated by the private institutions,including those receiving hefty grants from the state government.

“So,banning donation or capitation fee is nothing new. We have issued the new notification with some new features after a flood of complaints from the parents,” said Deputy Secretary (secondary education) J L Patel.

Friday’s notification pointed out that the private institutions had been given certain degree of autonomy with a view of allowing growth and development of education in the state.

But the autonomy was being misused by the managements by forcing the parents to pay donations and capitation money,which virtually came in the way of promoting and spreading education in the state,added the notification.