Come June and parents have to break their heads whether to continue their wards in the same school or shift them owing to exorbitant fees. Now with the government appointed panel fixing a uniform fee structure, parents need not feel the pinch in their purse, as they can now arrange for the money in advance.

With number of complaints increasing day-by-day regarding private schools collecting huge sum as fees, the government decided to frame a legislation.

Headed by a former High Court Judge, a committee was established under the Tamilnadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act 2009.

The Private Schools Fee Determination Committee, a statutory panel appointed by the Government on Friday finalised the fee structure after conducting a detailed study of the various issues.

The committee took into consideration the average fees collected from each student, the total number of students and the expenditure incurred by the school, including the salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff and other expenses, such as electricity and telephone charges.

The fees fixed for each individual school will be intimated through the concerned Chief Educational Officer.

K Govindarajan, Committee Chairperson, addressing newspersons here on Friday, said a format was designed with regard to the fixation of fees and it was forwarded to all the 10,934 schools, of which 10,233 responded.

The fee structure for 10,233 schools was fixed on the basis of income and expenditure of the schools.

If the income, collected as fees from students, were more than the expenditure, the schools were asked to reduce them.

In schools where the income was less than the expenditure, they were allowed to collect the existing fees.

Schools that were not collecting any fees would not be allowed to collect fees.

For the 701 schools which had not responded to the format, the committee has fixed fees similar to that of schools in the adjoining areas.

The committee on an average fixed Rs 11,000 for higher secondary schools, Rs 9,000 for high schools, Rs 8,000 for middle schools and Rs 5,000 for elementary schools in the city.

There were higher secondary schools in the city which were collecting around Rs 35,000 per student.

However, in the case of elementary schools in the city, a majority of them were collecting around Rs 2,000 per student.

Shockingly, a residential school in Kadayanallur in Tirunelveli district was collecting Rs 1.25 lakh per student for elementary classes.

As the school showed an expense of Rs 3,000 per student, the committee fixed the same as the fees. The committee allowed the existing fee structure for schools that were collecting reasonable fees.

Govindarajan said fees in schools in urban areas were less compared to those in semi-urban areas. Perhaps this might be due to lesser number of students in the latter.

The chairperson said the fees fixed by the committee would be in force for three years and no school would be allowed to enhance or revise the fees for the next three years without prior permission of the committee. For the development of schools a 10 per cent increase in expenses would be allowed.

If the committee received any complaint from students or parents that a particular school had been collecting more than the prescribed fee it would make an enquiry. It would recommend penal action against the school if the complaint against it was found to be true.