The community schools in the districts are found to be collecting illegal charges from the school in the form of monthly fees and exam fees.

The government has declared free education until class 10 and has prohibited any community school to charge any kind of fee.

However, the District Education Office has been ignoring the schools though they have been making the students to pay even in the district headquarters Manthali.

The schools are found to have been collecting fees from the students of marginalized communities and the dalit community whom the government is paying allowance as a step of encouragement to continue studies.

The community schools justify the charge saying that they do not have any other resources to pay for teachers appointed on private funding.

Speaking at a public hearing, District Education Officer Deepak Kafle stressed on the provision that no school should be charging the students and pledged that any kind of illegal fee would be returned to the students.

Following his pledge, the rights activists have begun collecting the receipts from students, informed advocate Pandav Prasain, the coordinator of district level Human Rights Protection Network.