Parents and guardians are struggling to pay admission fee for their children seeking enrolment in Class XI this year as private colleges across the country have started charging higher and, in many cases, even higher than the limit set by the education ministry.
According to an education ministry directive, private colleges cannot charge more than Tk 5,000 for the admission to Class XI although this is mostly ignored by the colleges with some admission fees being set at two or three times the limit.
A student has to pay Tk 13,000 for admission to Class IX in Viqarunnisa Noon School and College while Motijheel Ideal School and College is charging Tk 11,000 for admission.
It is not just these two well-known schools. Dhaka City College is charging Tk 15,592, admission to Tejgoan College costs Tk 9,000 and the fee at Mirpur University College is Tk 7,600.
Perhaps the highest fee is set by the Crown Business Studies College which is charging Tk 19,000 for admission to Class XI.
In addition to the admission fee, some colleges are also charging tuition fees.
The tuition fee is Tk 2700 a month at the College of Development Alternative, Tk 2000 a month at the Crown Business Studies College, Tk 1100 a month at the Milestone College, and Tk 1,100 a month at Stamford College.
Husne Ara Begum, the principal of Viqarunnisa Noon College, acknowledged that her college was charging between Tk 12,000 and Tk 13,000 for admission to Class XI but claimed that it was not in violation of the education ministry directive.
'We are charging Tk 5,000 as the development fee and the rest of the money is for other expenses,' she said. 'We are charging this amount following the decision of our governing body.'
Many guardians who were putting their children through these schools said that they were struggling to manage the expense.
'Every year, educational institutions are increasing the admission and tuition fees assuming there to be no monitoring authority to spot the irregularities in the colleges,' said Shafik Ahmed, a guardian whose daughter will get admission to Viqarunnisa College.
'During the admission time, the education ministry set up a committee for investigation but no action has been taken against any institutions,' he added.
Ahsanul Basher, another guardian, told New Age, 'How can the government allow the institutions to charge this way? There should be a monitoring system from the government.'
Nomanur Rashid, the director general of the directorate of secondary and higher education, said that the directorate had set up a committee to investigate whether colleges have too high charges.
'We will recommend taking action once we receive the report from the committee,' he said.
He said that the directorate had no power to take action against institutions but could only recommend to the education ministry that sanctions should be imposed.
Source : New Age
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