A file photo shows students and guardians protesting at collection of value added tax at English medium schools.
The High Court on Thursday declared illegal collecting session fees at English medium schools.
The court also issued a set of directives for running the institutions in a transparent manner.
The directives include formation of a managing committee under the private (English medium) school and college ordinance 1962 and private English medium school registration rule 2007.
The committee will be composed of guardians, teachers and institution authorities and it will appoint the teachers and staff for the institution and determine their salaries and benefits. It will also fix the admission fee for the students.
It also directed to provide lesson on Bangla language, education, culture and heritage, history of Bangladesh including the contribution of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and freedom fighters for the students of English medium schools.
It also asked the school authorities to organise functions on national days.
The court also ordered providing audit report of the school to guardians of the students.
It restricted interference of owners into the activities of the institutions.
The bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Badruzzaman came up with the verdict after hearing two separate writ petitions filed by two guardians of English medium students in 2014 challenging the legality of charging session’s fee from the students.
The education ministry has to issue a circular containing the HC directive within a month and submit a compliant report within six months to the HC.
Source: New Age
