English medium school authorities fear the quality of education they provide would suffer if restrictions were imposed on changing their fee structure.
School authorities said this in response to demonstrations made by some parents against charging session fees and increasing the tuition fee charged by English medium schools.
Guardians seemed divided over charging session fees. Some said they wanted quality education and had no problems with session fees, while others were against session fees and tuition fee increases.
Camellia Ahmad, a parent, said that there were very few institutions in the country that were providing a high quality education, and English medium schools were among the few institutions that did so.
“We don’t want to see them destroyed. We fear restrictions on English medium schools would negatively affect the quality of education,” she said.
She said that a good number of guardians wanted quality education from English medium schools and they understood that money was required to ensure quality.
However, some guardians, united under the banner of “Guardians of English Medium Schools,” held protests in Dhanmondi on June 3 and sought government intervention to bar schools from charging re-admission fees.
On April 23, the High Court directed the government to take effective steps to frame education rules regarding monthly tuition fees, re-admission fees, and session charges at English medium schools.
One school authority said his school had obtained a stay order from the Appellate division until July14.
After the High Court order, the Education Ministry formed a committee which will confer with English medium school administrators.
Most schools opposed fee restrictions. They said they believed the government could monitor quality but should not impose fee restrictions.
Dhaka Tribune approached several English medium school authorities but they declined to comment.
One principal of an English medium school in Dhanmondi told the Dhaka Tribune that if his school could not charge session fees, or were barred from revising tuition fees, the school’s quality would suffer.
“We need to give increments to teachers every year, and operation costs increase every year,” he said.
He said session fees covered the school magazine, orientation, annual sports day, extracurricular activities, graduation ceremony and annual dinner.
“How could we possibly provide all of that without charging session fees?” he asked.