HYDERABAD: Amidst accusations of private schools charging exorbitant fees, the department of school education has finally cracked the whip, prompting complaints from parents that the action came too late.
The parents have demanded a stay on the proposed fee hike in all the schools until a proper mechanism for independent fee regulation is brought in where even parents are stakeholders.
The department of school education issued show cause notices to several top private schools in the state here on Thursday, seeking an explanation about the exorbitant fee that they are collecting. It gave them 15 days time to reply. However, parents are of the view that this is an eye wash to seek some more time and divert their attention.
“All these show-cause notices are just for lip service. Not a single GO, Rule or Act related to school fee regulation is being implemented by the government seriously. They very well know how these institutions work and they are probably siding with them on this issue. When there are at least 31 lakh students attending private schools in the state, we don’t know why government is siding with these 1,000 private institutes instead of with parents and students,” lamented Vikranth V, President of Hyderabad Schools Parents’ Association (HSPA).
“The schools that are supposed to make a profit of 5 per cent are making 70 to 80 per cent profits through fee hike, which is illegal. To tackle this issue, we will be tying up with students, teachers associations and other NGOs and will form a JAC on Saturday. Our main demands will be formation of an autonomous regulatory body to monitor fee hike, to get a proper Act passed in the Assembly to support a regulatory body and to freeze the 2016 fee hike,” Vikranth added.
He said it is astonishing to see government not making the report on school fee regulation public when the issue is big and important. The schools that were issued show-cause notices include Oakridge International School, Delhi Public School, Meridian, Sanghamitra School, Glendale, Chirec International School among others.
“Whenever this issue is raised, government just names some top-notch private schools so that it can blame parents for opting to send their kids to these schools. However, irrespective of the standard of the school, the fee hike is common in each and every private school. You see at least a 100 pc hike between each academic year, a school which used to collect Rs 300 per month, is now collecting Rs 700, the one that used charge Rs 14,000 is now charging around the Rs 30,000.
School level may be different, but the trend is the same,” Ashish Naredi, a member of HSPA, said.
Anuradha Rao, president of Balala Hakkula Sangham (BHS) said: “We appreciate the steps of the Education department, issuing notices to the famous schools of Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts, which collect exorbitant fee violating Right To Education Act. We want them to cancel the recognition of these schools as it is already proved that they are collecting heavy fee. Apart from this, they are also violating the Act by conducting admission tests and already taking admissions for next academic year against the rule that the schools should not open admissions till 11th June of the academic year.”
In fact, deputy chief minister Kadiam Srihari, who holds Education portfolio, had ordered an investigation into the finances of 12 major schools in August 2015, with the ATR (Action Taken Report) to be submitted in 30 days.