Chennai: As admission process is on in schools, parents are apprehensive about the fee CBSE and ICSE schools will demand this time as there is no committee to regulate fees.
Some parents are ready to pay extra as they consider it reasonable for quality education. But, there are many who have not yet paid the fee for last year, after protest by parents against exorbitant sum demanded by managements.
C.Uday Kumar, a parent of a student studying in a CBSE school, feels that for the new session, schools are likely to charge any amount they wish. “This year there won’t be any Singaravelu committee fixing the fee. Schools will demand very high fee this year. Most of the other schools will also do the same,” he said.
He added that last year as per the committee’s decision, the fee for an LKG student was Rs 14,000. But managements first hiked it to Rs 22,000 and later it was as high as Rs 44, 000 to Rs 55, 000. After protest and as directed by the committee to reduce the amount, it got revised to Rs 22, 000. “The committee had also asked managements to refund the excess sum. Till now, they haven’t made the refund,” he said.
Suma Padmanabhan, principal of Asan memorial school, said, “This year, there may be a hike of 10 per cent. It is required for the infrastructure and because of the protest many parents did not pay the fee yet. So we suffered loss.”
Another parent R.Harinath said the excess fee has not been returned. The school management said it was required for building dental colleges and other institutions. “Why should we pay for something which is not related to school? So, till now we haven’t paid the fee. We will do so only when everything settles down. We haven’t paid the fee for the second term,” he said.
CBSE officials said since the board was an all India one, any decision should be taken only at the central level. As per the bylaw, schools have to follow the guidelines of respective State education department. They cannot violate the rules.
A CBSE official requesting anonymity said, “The schools need 10 per cent hike as cost and income expenditure issues are there. Infrastructure cost will increase as well.”
Prince Gajendra Babu, educationist, said, “The judgement doesn’t say the government cannot regulate. It is up to the state government to form a body and look into parents’ complaints.”
