Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Oct 30: Tighte-ning noose around private coaching and tuition centres in Jammu and Kashmir, the Department of School Education has issued a number of guidelines on infrastructure requirements, fee and faculty etc besides fixing Pupil Teacher Ratio in these institutes.
Further, the tuition centres have also been directed to admit 10 percent of total intake in each class, students who belong to BPL families or are destitute/orphans.
Pertinent to mention that Rule 4 of Order Number 435-Edu of 2010, dated 30-04-2010 provides that Government is competent to regulate the tuition fee etc of the private tuition centres.
According to the Government order, all tuition centres have been asked to publish in its website as well as on public Notice Board, the details of infrastructure and particulars of the teaching faculty as well as class schedule of each faculty member. “Notify every change in teaching faculty or class schedule a week in advance and publish summery result at the end of the each session while sending detailed results with names to the Competent Authority,” says the Order No 558-Edu of 2015, dated 27-10-2015.
Asking the tuition centres to refund the entire fee in case a student decides to withdraw from the course within seven days of the registration for the course, the Government has also directed that in case of mid-session change of faculty, the students shall have the option to withdraw from the course within a period of seven days of such change being notified. In such case, the tuition centre shall have to refund the fee proportionately while the decision of the competent authority for refund shall be binding on the centre and the refund shall have to be made within a period of 10 days of such decision, the order explains.
Maintaining that the tuition centre shall admit 10 percent BPL family students or destitute on the recommendation of Competent Authority, the order explains that the Director of School Education shall invite applications from such students, falling in this category, and thereafter forward a list of such candidates on the basis of academic merit, to various private tuition centres. The tuition institutes shall publish the number of students imparted tuition in terms of clause 4(e) of the rules and compliance of the rule shall be mandatory for grant of renewal of the tuition centre, the order added.
Besides, the private tuition centres have also been asked to establish a Complaint Redressal Mechanism (CRM) and bring every complaints as well as disposal to the notice of the competent authority and Monitoring Committee within a week’s time of registration of a complaint.
According to a separate Order, No 559-Edu of 2015, dated 27-10-2015, the Government has also accepted recommendation of the committee for examining the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) in the private tuition centres.
The committee, comprising Director School Education Jammu/Kashmir, Joint Director School Education, Jammu/ Kashmir and expert member, Directorate of School Education, Jammu/Kashmir, has recommended that subject to availability of space measuring 3 by 3 sq ft per student in the classroom, the Pupil Teacher Ratio may be accordingly fixed upto 150, after taking into account the infrastructure facilities of the coaching institutes viz heating/cooling facilities, CCTV and other safety devices, audio/video devices, parking areas, waiting halls etc. The committee further observed that higher PTR may be allowed depending on the state of infrastructure facilities.
“It is hereby ordered that PTR of tuition centres shall be decided by the Director School Education Jammu/Kashmir, who has been designated as the competent authority, which shall ordinarily be upto 150. The Competent Authority can extend PTR beyond 150 in exceptional circumstances after recording reasons for the same in the order. For determination of PTR, the competent authority shall conduct inspection and follow principle of natural justice,” says the Government order.
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