Bengaluru: DPI rules on school fees to provide relief to parents
According to the parents every month schools charge anywhere between Rs 1,000 to Rs.4,000 as activities fee.
Bengaluru: From the next academic year the city schools, including those affiliated to CBSE and ICSE, cannot fleece the parents by charging hefty fees during new admissions or drastically revise its current fee structure. For the first time in recent years the DPI has come out with a scientific formula to decide on fee structure of every school.
As per the new formula the fee structure of a school would be computed based on the actual salary expenditure on teaching and non teaching staff, including outsourced staff, in the previous financial year. Even though schools are allowed to collect additional fee towards contingency, operation and maintenance costs, rent, debt servicing, depreciation etc, it should not be more than 100% of the actual salary expenditure.
Term fee: Another interesting aspect is the provision to collect term fee: According to the draft fee policy, schools will be allowed to charge not exceeding 5% of the tuition fee. The term fee can be used to cover expenses of co-curricular activities, examination, lab, sports and cultural events.
According to DPI sources the new draft rules has divided the school managements based on their affiliation. State schools have appreciated the guidelines prescribed by the DPI, while CBSE and ICSE schools are expected to oppose them, citing impracticality.“As per the draft rules, we cannot charge more than 100% of the tuiton fee for the various activities. In a city like Bengaluru tuition fee is not an issue, but recurring expenditures are the big headache. The new rules do not address our concerns,” said a principal of an ICSE school.
Meanwhile Karnataka Associated Managements of English Medium Schools (KAMS) has urged the DPI to continue with this draft policy. KAMS general secretary D. Shashikumar informed that draft policy has addressed all our concerns and created win-win situation for both students and school managements.
Extra fee problem: According to the parents every month schools charge anywhere between Rs 1,000 to Rs.4,000 as activities fee. This issue has not been addressed in the draft rule.