Private schools looting parents by selling books, uniforms at high price
VIJAYAWADA: Private schools of Vijayawada are looting thousands of rupees from students by selling notebooks and study materials at schools at exorbitant prices. Apart from the government textbooks, each set of books being sold at private schools is costing around `5,500. Interestingly, the same set of books is available for `1,200-2,000 in the open market, depending on the class.
The school managements are forcing parents to buy the books in school itself and many schools have made it mandatory.T Damodar (name changed), who owns a small grocery store in the city, has paid `22,000 for his younger son studying in 8th standard and `25,000 for his elder son studying in 9th standard at Narayana Techno School, Vijayawada as school fees. Apart from these, he even paid `11,000 for purchasing notebooks for his two children.
Speaking to Express, Damodar said, “Private schools are looting money in all aspects right from school fees, books, uniforms and study materials. Even after paying `25,000 as fees, they charged me another `5,000 in the name of notebooks and study material. The saddest part is they are making everything mandatory and forcing us to buy them from the school itself. Being a shopkeeper, I know that the entire set wouldn’t cost more than `2,000, but the schools are charging double the actual cost.”
It is not just the case of Damodar. Majority of the parents who send their children to the private schools in the State are facing similar issues. Apart from Narayana Techno Schools, many other private schools in the city are forcing parents to buy notebooks and other stationary from the school itself, adding more burden to the parents Speaking to Express, Syamala Devi, principal of a private school, said, “We are not forcing the parents to buy stationery or notebooks from our school.We are only recommending that everything is available at the school store within an affordable price so they need not roam around in the markets for purchasing a set of notebooks. We don’t think that that we are doing anything illegal as we are not forcing the parents to buy stationery from the school.”
In fact, according rules of the State government, the school should not be part of any sales activity like selling stationery, notebooks, uniforms etc. They can only recommend shops to the parents and it is completely optional for the parents whether to buy from that place or not. However, in many cases, the school management is directly getting involved in the sales by tying up with a particular bookstore. This way, they are handling the sales through that bookstore and making profits by charging a hefty amount.
Interestingly, the concerned government officials are aware of the matter.
“We have the right to take strict action against those schools who are directly involving in sales activities and are forcing the parents to purchase the stationery from them. But majority of the schools are tying up with bookstores and involving in sales activities. When we conduct spection in schools, they claim that they are not making it mandatory and it is just a recommendation. We are discussing the issue with senior authorities,” said T Srinivas, Superintendent of Private Schools in the State Education Department.
Logo books
On an average, the private schools are making ` 50,00,000 every year by selling the study material and stationery. The notebooks are being customised with the logo of the educational institution, which is increasing the price of the books. A 200 page unruled Classmate notebook costs from `30-35 in the open market, but the same book with institution logo is being charged `45 at private schools.
Stop sales: CBSE to schools
On the other hand, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has instructed all the schools affiliated to CBSE to stop sales activities like selling uniforms, books and stationery, failing which, the recognition of the school will be cancelled, the board warned. Now, all CBSE schools in the city are following the instruction of the board in that regard.