Corporate schools devise ways to override rules

HYDERABAD: Government officials were bemused at what they found while inspecting corporate schools on the directions of the High Court. Trustees of one school were found to be using luxury cars that they billed to the institution on the ground that they were travelling to school. Another school having its own building tried to show that it was a rental space taken on lease from an agency.

In the wake of controversies surrounding exorbitant fees collected by private, corporate and international schools, officials of the education department accompanied by accountants and auditors visited nearly 160 schools and checked records pertaining to permissions obtained, infrastructure, students and staff strength, monthly expenditure and bank accounts among others.

Sources said that institutions that were making  big earnings had got documents to cover their tracks. “Schools established through trusts should extend service to people but their actions are just the opposite. Even institutions that were given prime land at low rates were cocentrating on minting money rather than serving the needy,” the source said. Many schools were found to be violating on two fronts – admission fees and in setting up  management committee.

While the government has prescribed that admission fees should not go beyond Rs 5,000, most schools were collecting more. Schools are not following due procedure of discussing fee hike issues among school management committees. Some schools did not have any committee. Mr Ashish Naredi of Hyderabad Schools Parents Association, that has been fighting on the issue of fee hike, stated that school managements moving in swanky cars and owning big buildings shows how education had transformed into a profit making venture.