Home ›› 12 Feb 2023 ›› Front
The government is formulating a policy fixing tuition fees at the educational institutions of the country.
Education ministry sources said the ministry has already formulated a draft of the policy regarding the tuition and other fees of the schools and colleges proposing a reasonable amount.
According to the draft policy, a total of 26 types of fees have been proposed to be fixed including monthly tuition, admission, session, and board examination form fill-up fees of the institutions.
The policy will be implemented by both the Monthly Payment Order (MPO) affiliated institutions and non-MPO-listed educational institutions across the country.
Separate tuition fees have been fixed for schools and colleges under three categories — metropolitan, municipal districts or municipal upazilas, and rural — while the educational institutions have been also divided into MPO and non-MPO categories.
Among these, it has been proposed to charge the monthly tuition fee from a minimum of Tk 100 to a maximum of Tk 500 for the sixth to eighth-grade secondary level MPO-listed educational institutions. And the monthly tuition fee for classes 9 and 10 has been proposed at Tk 150 to Tk 400.
It has been proposed to fix the monthly tuition fees from Tk 250 to Tk 600 for classes 9 and 10 and Tk 200 to Tk 500 for classes 6 to 8 under the non-MPO institutions.
Similarly, the monthly tuition fee of MPO-affiliated educational institutions at the college level has been proposed at a minimum of Tk 180 to a maximum of Tk 450.
The draft policy also proposed Tk 200 to Tk 500 monthly tuition fee at the graduate-level MPO-listed institutions.
However, in non-MPO educational institutions, the tuition fee will be from Tk 300 to Tk 600 at the college level while Tk 400 to Tk 700 at the graduate level.
Apart from this, the draft policy also specifies how much money educational institutions can collect for internal examinations, tiffin, magazines, sports, cultural festivals, religious events, libraries, identity cards, educational tours, and development fees. The fee will be from Tk 5 to Tk 200.
The draft policy proposes that the educational institution cannot collect any additional money from the students except the fixed tuition and other fees. The collected fees shall be deposited in the general fund of the educational institution and shall be expended following rules.
The policy also states that no money can be collected from the students without a receipt book and no expenditure will be allowed without a bill or voucher.
Asked about the high tuition fees at the capital’s schools and colleges, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni on Wednesday said, “We are working to ensure reasonable tuition fees at the government and non-government educational institutions across the country.”
Academics and education ministry sources said the National Education Policy-2010 suggested formulating a policy regarding tuition fees at educational institutions to prevent charging high tuition fees.
Besides, some deputy commissioners (DC) at DC Conference-2018 also proposed to formulate a tuition fee policy for non-government educational institutions across the country.
Following the demand, the ministry took an initiative four years ago to make a policy to refrain the privately-run secondary and higher secondary level educational institutes from charging high tuition or other fees.
On November 20, 2018, the Education Ministry’s Secondary and Higher Education Division’s Deputy Secretary Anwarul Haque sent a letter requesting the Director General of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) to send a draft policy in this regard.
Following the ministry’s letter, the DSHE sent a draft of the policy to the education ministry last year and now the policy is at the final stage, said ministry sources.
A ministry official said the policy regarding the tuition fees is yet to be formulated due to the slow pace in finalising the policy by the departments concerned, but hopefully, it will be finalised within the shortest time.
Ministry sources said the government is speeding up the policy formulation activities as schools and colleges are charging high tuition and other fees due to the lack of a specific policy.
A guardian of a Class IV student at the capital’s Monipur High School and College said he has to pay Tk 2,700 monthly tuition fee for his daughter.
A guardian of a class III student at Willes Little Flower School and College said the school authorities are charging Tk 1,800 monthly tuition fee for his son.
Another guardian of a student at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College in the capital said they have to pay Tk 1,400 monthly tuition fee at the school.
The city’s Ideal School and College in Motijheel is taking Tk 1, 450 monthly tuition fee from each student, said a guardian of a class IV student.
Guardians said the authorities of private schools and colleges are charging high tuition fees as per their whims and it is the common picture in all private schools and colleges in the country.
Earlier, the education ministry instructed the educational institutes on many occasions to refrain from charging additional fees from the students but in vain.
Due to high tuition fees, the guardians having limited income are struggling to bear the education costs of their children.
Dhaka University (DU)’s Institute of Education and Research Professor SM Hafizur Rahman said it is very important to formulate the policy because the cost difference from one institution to another is very high in the country.
He said, “If the government formulates the policy, the trend of establishing educational institutions from commercial thinking will be stopped and the education sector will be disciplined.”
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Education Information and Statistics (BANBEIS), a total of 34,816 out of 36,710 educational institutions of secondary and higher secondary level are privately run across the country.
