Bengaluru

Giriraj

Shankar KR

John K Zachariah

NRI

Karnataka

Bishop Cotton Boys’ School principal justifies the high ticket price; says every penny is invested back in the student. But the ‘donation’ in a different garb is what bothers parentsA social media post showing last year’s fee structure for admission in LKG at Bishop Cotton Boys School inhas got the entire nation talking about the exorbitant fees school in the country are charging. The debate started when Sandalwood directorBM posted a picture of the fee structure on a social media site on March 10 and the post went viral.When BM accessed the fee structures of various schools across the city, the numbers were unbelievable. A reputed school in JP Nagar which doesn’t even have a playground charges Rs 2.5 lakh fees for admission in pre-KG classes. The school gives a receipt for just Rs 1.5 lakh and the remaining Rs 1 lakh is put under the category of ‘developmental charges’.Another school in JP Nagar area charges Rs 1,32,600 as fee for Montessori grade and it can be paid in instalments. Another well-known institution in the Central Business District (CBD) area asks parents to draw two demand drafts (DD). Parents are asked to deposit Rs 65,900 in one account and Rs 1 lakh in another which is earmarked as the parents’ contribution to the school.Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, Giriraj BM, who brought the issue up on social media, said, “In the year 2007, my team had performed a street play in front of Bishop Cotton School. One of my team members had gone to the school to get information on the admission process. He was shocked to see the fee structure. When someone sent me this photo, I decided to post it.”“It is not only about Bishop Cotton School, this is happening everywhere. Education has become too expensive these days. If one school does it, the other schools start to raise their fee keeping this as a benchmark,” he said.“The schools have been collecting building and infrastructure fee for many years now. How many years will they keep collecting this? Will they keep on building new blocks every year?” Giriraj asked.Parents have only one question: Why do we have to pay Rs 1 lakh or above? Schools without playgrounds and other facilities still charge exorbitant fee, they say., a parent, said, “We have no worries about the admission fee or the tuition fee. The only thing bothering us is the donation amount we are made to pay in different names. One school calls it development fee, another school calls it contribution. While other schools list out everything and say these are the charges for various activities at the school. There are schools which say this is for the annual cultural festival and sports festival at the school. Why are we burdened with what the school has to do?”On the other hand, a parent from the Bishop Cotton Boy’s School said that the child gets what they are paying for. Sujatha N, a parent and child protection committee member, told BM, “If the government could provide quality education to all like in the UK and some other countries, every parent would choose that. As far as high schools fees are concerned, we feel that it’s given back to the children in many ways. In comparison to other schools, Cotton’s is being transparent by printing the fee structure. The fees are paid into the bank directly and we get receipts for what we pay.”When BM approached the school management, Professor, principal of Bishop Cotton Boys’ School, told BM, “For us, education is not a business. What parents pay as school fee is pumped back to the child in every possible way.”Talking about the post that went viral, he said, “This is something unusual. The institution has a record of being the best school in the city and everyone is aware of the fee structure. We are publically putting it out in our school dairies. We are totally transparent about the school’s fee unlike others who do not disclose the break-up of the fee.”The school’s management pointed out that the picture which was shared on social media shows the fee ‘at the time of admission’ and that this is only for parents who are admitting a child for the first time.The fee structure which went viral also had a line ‘double the normal tuition fee will be charged to the students whose parents are based, or work, abroad’.The principal said, “Last year, we had only two to three students and, this year, we have only one student who comes undercategory. Even that student’s parents are returning to India very soon and they have applied for a refund and we have already initiated the process. Where is the question of having a big doubt here?”An Old Boy’s Association member said, “It is true that private institutions are expensive and government institutions are affordable. But the quality of education and infrastructure is poles apart. The solution is that a majority of you seek is that the fees for private institutes must be lowered. While that is one way of thinking about it, don’t you think it’s more important that government institutes provide quality and jump into the competition?”“Private institutions run educational institutions as businesses. And why shouldn’t they? A lot of money goes into setting up an institution and the same needs to be recovered with inflation,” the member added.D Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of English Medium Schools in, said, “Any school has the liberty to fix the fee at the entry level which should be meaningful and should be on the books with income and expenditure. There should not be exorbitant surplus. A meaningful 10% to 15% surplus can be maintainable which is utilised for institution’s growth.”