Bargaining power decides school fee

Hyderabad: Bargaining and discounts are no longer reserved for shopping trips. These days, you can put your haggling skills to use while paying school fees.

Some schools in the city are offering discounts and allowing parents to negotiate at the time of making fee payments. Meanwhile, parents feel cheated after learning that they have been charged varying amounts.

The parent, who did not wish to be named, said, “My child’s school has been very irregular in the collection of fees. At the time of admission, they usually collect membership fees. These fees are a form of donation, except that they are collected in the name of membership. It is a highly negotiable component. Some parents are charged '30,000, some '50,000, and others '70,000. We paid '70, 000 and now we feel cheated.”

He contacted the school authorities after finding out that others had been charged less. He was told that some parents had been offered discounts based on recommendations, or because they had bargained. “The school says it is our fault that we paid more. They have accepted that they charged different admission fees on different dates in the same year. It is like a shopping mall – today you may get 50 per cent off, tomorrow 25 per cent off. I plan to file a case against the school at the consumer court,” he said.

Venkat K. Sainath, a member of the Hyderabad School Parents’ Association, said, “It happens in every school; there is no uniform fee structure. Discounts are being given at many schools in the city on the basis of recommendations made by officials and local politicians. In some schools, it’s common for fees to be charged at the principal’s discretion.”

S. Srinivas Reddy, the president of the Telangana Recognised School Managements’ Association, said, “The collection of donations has been banned. But when parents show a lot of interest in a particular school and when the number of applications is more than the number of seats available, then bargaining begins. Parents should avoid such institutions.”

He said that even when there were no seats available at a school, parents tried to get their children admission through mediators. “Parents should choose institutions that provide quality education without collecting any donations. They should file complaints against schools that demand donations,” he said.