Rising fees trip parents

Updated on: Tuesday, December 27, 2011

A‘good education’ has always been one of the most evasive of terms. It can encompass schooling, sports, self-learning, among a host of other things. Any cog falls out and the wagon gets unsettled. No wonder then, no parent ever willingly compromises on the child’s education. But what if the most important element goes out of reach? In Mumbai, a consistent rise in school fees has scalded many parents, forcing them to sacrifice wants, save pennies, even move to modest suburbs.

As in any mega city, the financial capital has a wide range of schools. On one end of the spectrum, it has corporate-run, corporate-style schools that offer luxurious facilities and can charge anywhere between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 11 lakh a year. On the other end exist municipal and government-aided schools, which, owing to lack of funds, usually focus attention on the curricular and demand a nominal fee of Rs 250 a month or less. And in between these poles are the majority of Mumbai’s schools that, neither too ritzy nor too austere, usually set their fee in the range of Rs 10,000-Rs 1.5 lakh per annum.

Any parent who admits a child in a top-end school is well aware—and most times, fully capable—of the skyscraping costs, leaving little possibility of conflicts later. However, in other institutions, the window for disagreements is not so narrow. It is not surprising, then, that there have been many disagreements in the last two years.

Last year, Vishwajyot School in Kharghar was practically locked down for two days when parents protested against its decision to shut out a few students over non-payment of raised fee. The confrontation quickly snowballed, with scores of parents across Navi Mumbai, in a show of solidarity, not sending their wards to school for a day. In the end, the government supported Vishwajyot’s fee hike, but, at the same time, ordered the school to take back the students.

Conflicts such as these particularly began erupting once the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission got implemented in 2009. The commission awarded a 6% salary hike to teachers and demanded that schools also give arrears for the past five years. It further asked that retired teachers be paid their pension as per the new rules. Schools, not without reason, argue that if they have to comply with the directives and upgrade infrastructure and install technologies, they need to increase their fees.

“A school usually charges fees to churn out a decent surplus to plough it back into the school,” says Sujay Jairaj, trustee of Jamnabai Narsee School in Andheri (West). “Still, there’s a thin line between a school focusing on students’ upbringing and a school looking to make money.”

There are many, however, who don’t see the picture quite the same way. “Education is like a moneymaking business now. There are no ethics or rules being followed. Parents are so helpless that they can’t even question the managements,” says Rajesh Gupta, who has repeatedly quarrelled with his daughter’s school over its fees.

Jayant Jain, president of the NGO Forum for Fairness in Education, puts forth the same argument. “Many families live in rented flats to be able to send their children to good schools. Even after framing the Fee Regulation Bill, parents are still suffering at the hands of moneymaking school managements.” The forum filed several petitions in the Bombay high court against private schools, but Jain says, “Even today, nobody questions schools about their balance sheets, which, in some cases, show profits running into crores.”

In an effort to settle the disputes, the state government has formulated the Maharashtra Fee Regulation Bill. Though not implemented yet, it puts various conditions on schools before they can raise their fees: Managements have to first take the permission of parent teachers associations; the fee can be increased by not more than 15% every three years; the hike has to be based on the school’s location, infrastructure and the facilities it provides.

The government is confident the impending law will settle the confrontations forever. “We are taking time to ensure that once the policy is implemented, there will be no questioning its authority. Once the rule is in place, schools will have no option but to follow them,” says an official from the state education department.

Rising fees trip parents

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