Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Many private schools across the State fleece parents by increasing school fee by nearly 20 per cent every year, flouting the rules set by the Education Department. Besides the annual fee, schools make parents spend an additional Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 in the name of excursions, sports and cultural programmes.

Sai Ram (name changed), a parent who runs a small grocery store in Vijayawada, is now burdened with increased school fee of his younger son Monish (name changed), a Class X student of Narayana e- Techno School.

He paid Rs 23,000 as school fee last year and now there is an increase of Rs 7,000 for the same. “Paying Rs 30,000 is beyond my capacity. I also have to pay for the education of my elder son. When I confronted the school management, they first refused, but later agreed to fix the school fee at Rs 28,000,” he said. Though he threatened to shift her son from the school, finally Sai Ram agreed to pay the discounted fee.

When contacted, school principal D Ravi Shanker said, “We are charging an average fee of Rs 16,500 for students studying from LKG to Class X. The exact fee will be more or less than the average fee. We are not taking any donations or special fee. We are following the instructions of higher authorities.” However, he refused to give details of the fee structure and maintained that they are giving concession to some students.

Many schools in Visakhapatnam have become commercial institutions as a parent who wishes to admit his child in high profile school in UKG has to spend up to Rs 1 lakh. These global standard schools have AC buses and classrooms and other facilities. Regular schools in the Port City charge Rs 30,000 to Rs 45,000 as annual fee for Class I to III, while a Class X student has to pay Rs 50,000 or more.

“Around 10 years ago, annual fee for a Class IX student was Rs 12,500, now the same school charges Rs 30,000-Rs 40,000 from a Class III student. School infrastructure has been developed, but education standards have come down. Now my daughter is in Class X and the school management has already informed us about buying extra materials for mock tests,” said Bindu Madhavi, whose two daughters are in Class VIII and X.

In addition to paying fee, parents are told to buy books, uniform and shoes only from the school, saying that some of the books are not available in open markets. “Recently, I paid Rs 5,000 for the textbooks and notebooks. As the schools insist that those books should be purchased only from the school, we have no other go,” complained K Vijaya Kumari of Kakinada, whose kid studies at St. Thomas School.

Govt order MS1

In urban areas, for Class I to V the fee will range from Rs 15,000-25,000 per annum for day scholar students and Rs 2 lakh for residential students. Similarly, for students studying in Class VI-X, the fee will be Rs 20,000-Rs 40,000 per annum. In the name of smart classes and digital classrooms, the schools are also charging Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000. Similarly, in rural areas or small towns, the fees in private schools are ranging between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000.

In fact, the School Education Department had instructed all the schools to follow GO MS 1 for regulation of fee. As per the GO, the department must constitute district-level committees with district collector as the authoritative body. Those schools who want to hike fee must approach the panel.

In protest against fee hike, parents from a private school staged a dharna recently in Visakhapatnam, demanding formation of parents-teachers committees. But not many schools have parent committees.

“Though a teachers-parents committee is there in the school, it is not working properly. Even the complaints we report during the meeting are left unattended,” said Anu, whose daughter is studying at Timpany School in Vizag.

K Ravi Kumar, Deputy DEO of Krishna district, said, “Parents are not coming forward to complain about fee hike. Moreover, the district-level fee regulation committees are not working and the school managements constituting a parents committee and hiking the fee as per its decision.”

There is also a GO No 42, which says the annual school fee in urban areas should not exceed Rs 9,000 for Class I to VII and Rs 12,000 for Class VIII to X. In rural areas, the fee should not exceed Rs 7,800 for Class I to VII and Rs 10,800 for Class VIII to X. All kinds of fee such as special, term and admission fee are included in the above structure. However, some school managements approached court in 2013 against it, but the petition was squashed. However, it was again challenged in 2014 and a stay was issued.

When it comes to the Right to Education Act, which stipulates that all private, non-minority and unaided schools should reserve 25 per cent seats for disadvantaged or weaker sections of society, schools in several districts are not paying any heed to it.

“The RTE Act is not getting implemented properly in the district. We have already submitted a detailed report on the RTE status in the district to the State government,” said S Tahera Sulthana, DEO of Kurnool district. Instructions from the State government is awaited, she added.

Fee regulatory panels not working

With district fee regulatory committees not working, schools, more so corporate ones, are collecting fee as per their wish. The hike in school fee has no rhyme or reason, complain parents.