Pvt schools deny charge of steep fee hike, seek slab system on fee by govt

Hyderabad: Disagreeing with the alarming rise in school fees across the city, private school managements urge the Telangana government to develop a slab system on fee hikes. They also claim that only 10 per cent of tuition fee is hikedevery year.

Administrators of private schools defend the fee hikes as necessary and also highlighted that most schools have increased fees by 8%-10% this year, saying that every academic year they follow the same procedure.“The decision to increase the fee is essential due to the rising market rates for teacher salaries. Our primary source is schools fees, as the state government has never supported private schools.We offer competitive salaries to retain experienced staff and also have other expenses that includebuilding rent, electricity charges, water charges,” they say.

Shiva Ramakrishna, a correspondent of SRK Group of Institutions, said, “We have never hiked the fee, we are very compatible with parents’ demands but for the last two years, what we have observed is that even after accepting the fee structure, many parents did not clear the fee and have admitted their students to other schools It will be good if the fee regulatory system is from the government and if it implements a slab system based on the locality of the school and the kinds of facilities provided.”

Praveen Raju, correspondent of Suchitra Academy International School, said, “Just because of few schools, all the schools are being blamed.As per the collective decision by members of Independent School Management Association (ISMA), we have never increased our fee above 10 percent.”

Sadula Madhusudhan, correspondent of Pragati Vidya Niketan High School and state president, Telangana Recognised School Managements Association, stated, “There are nearly 11,000 private schools across the state, out of approximately 10,000 are budget private schools and hardly 1,000 are corporate or international schools. Most of the budget private schools’ average fee structure is about Rs 20,000, whereas in corporate or international schools, the average fee structure is about Rs 1.5 lakh. It will be better if government comes up with a slab system. There should be separate norms for normal or budget private schools and for international schools.”

Meanwhile, according to the parents, although the school management claims that they include all their charges in one, but the reality is that apart from tuition fees, they are separate fees for books, uniforms, food, transport, and if there is any cultural programme, even for that they are separately charged.