Parents sometimes pay double the amount paid compared to the previous academic year.
By Esther Esha
Bangalore, April 10, 2019
Most of the private schools in Bangalore are charging more than 20% to 30% of the fees they charged last year. As another academic year is going to begin in a few weeks, the parents are frustrated with the increase, as they were not informed about it earlier.
They have slabs of fee for different classes. For instance, if the kid is going from the third standard to the fourth standard there is a rise in the usual fee from 20% to 30%, plus they charge an extra 10% of the fee collected. The school justifies this hike by saying that since last year they follow the same practice. But the parent’s plight is bad as they have to pay double the fee they paid last year.
International schools put it in writing to the parents that every year there will be a rise in the school fee by 10%, and give account for the rise in the fee by bringing in new sports or something new in the academics.
Chytra, a parent whose child is currently studying at Gopalan International School said, “There is an amount of fee that is to be paid when the child is joining the school. Increase in the fee by 10% does not affect me a lot, because I’m already paying 40% extra now and they provide different explanations for charging me more.”
For a nursery child’s fee was Rs. 1, 23,000 inclusive of the donation. At first, the student should pay around Rs. 1, 70,000 which is an increase of 30%. There should be an increase of 10% only every year but this year they have increased it 30%. Last year the fee was around Rs. 1, 45,000 for a first-class student.
There is a slab jump (slab system of school fee) that is making a double amount plus 10% increase in the fee. The fee hike had started 10 to 15 years ago when there was a salary hike. Now there is no hike in the salaries, but they continue to charge more from the parents.
This school is registered under a non-profit organization but is making a bundle of money. They should collect a fee for the expenditures – but not to make a profit that is too high.
Vidya Mane, another parent who struggled with the rise of school fee said, “She changed the school of her kid because of the rise. We choose schools because of the academic curriculum, we paid the fee around Rs. 1,70,000 for class one. After a while, they said they hired a third-party vendor for academics called “Ezee Vidhya. We haven’t been informed anything about it. After my son reached a higher class, they didn’t even have basics diagrams on lunar eclipse and solar eclipse in the textbooks.
When we confronted them they said they have already tied up with another party. There is an annual fund that should be paid that is Rs. 8,000 called reserve fund, but now they charged us for “Ezze Vidhya” without our consent.
Around 15 parents confronted the principal about this. But she said “it is the management who decides it and not us. She asked us to take the transfer certificate and leave the school.”
S Jayakumara, Director of Public Instruction explained that the reasons could be the teachers’ salary, plus 30% of the contingency which is their expenditure, and other miscellaneous costs of purchasing a few things required by the school. There is an amendment in Bangalore that if Rs 50,00,000 is paid for the teachers’ salaries, another Rs. 50,00,00 on contingency. The total is Rs. 1 crore.
Pradeep, an educationalist said, “The hike beyond 10% is unjustified. The government officials should be active with regards to the school fee in private schools which has not been happening for some time now.”
