THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Babu, whose two children are studying in Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) is a worried man. The reason? Decision by the school to collect fee arrears of four years. The total fee arrears of his children come up to `32,000 which almost equals his one month’s salary. Babu is a last grade employee in a Central PSU and the sole breadwinner of a family of six members.
Barely managing to make both ends meet with his salary, Babu is unsure how he would be able to cough up the fee. The arrears were to be collected in four installments from the upcoming academic year. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan’s (KVS) Ernakulam Regional Office has directed schools not to collect the fees in the first quarter.
KVS had hiked the fee, called Vidyalaya Vikas Nidhi (VVN), in 2013. However, an association of parents of KV students in Kerala obtained a stay from the court in 2014, which continued till 2019. With the lifting of the stay in 2019, KVS demanded fee arrears from the parents from January 2015 to March 2019. For instance, a Class XII student will have to pay around Rs 16,000 as fee arrear alone in three installments, in addition to the normal quarterly fee.
“For Central government employees, the arrears may not be an issue as they get the fee reimbursed. For the others, arranging the amount will be a tough task,” said Babu. He, along with a few parents, has written to KVS to consider their case favourably.“We’ve received representations for concession of the arrears. Such applications will be considered on a case-to-case basis by a committee,” said C Karunakaran, Deputy Commissioner, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Ernakulam Region. There are 39 KVs in the state with around 54,000 students and parents of around 25% of these students have no fee reimbursement provision.
The hiked fee hasn’t been collected for nearly five years only in Kerala. “The VVN collected from each student amounts to `500 per month. The entire monthly expenses of the institution have to be met with this fund. Most of the time, the schools barely manage, thanks to grants from the Sangathan,” said a KVS official.