High fee in private school in absence of regulation

Hyderabad: It is two years since the submission of Prof. Tirupati Rao Committee’s report regarding school fee regulation.  Still no action has been taken so far to prevent the private school managements from collecting exorbitant fee from the students. 

The parents of the students made several representations to the Government in this regard and even resorted to protests but to no avail.  Even during the coronavirus pandemic they have not got much relief.

“My children are studying in sixth and eighth grades and I have to pay more than a lakh as fee for each one of them.  Due to coronavirus pandemic, my income has been stopped and I could not pay their fees.  In spite of my request to the school management, they gave no concession,” said Navin Yadav, an event management employee.

Yadav wondered why there is no regulatory body to give relief to the parents of the students.

K. Vinod’s case is not any different.  He lost his job and is not in a position to pay the fees of his two children.  He said, “My elder son is in tenth grade and out of Rs.65,000 fee I had paid Rs.35,000 only.  I am worried that, if I fail to pay the remaining amount, the school management would stop his hall ticket.”  Similarly, Vinod paid only Rs.15,000 out of Rs.35,000 fee for his younger son. 

In 2018, a committee headed by the former VC of Osmania University Prof Tirupati Rao submitted a report regarding the fee regulation in private schools.  This report, however, was not made public.

The recommendations made in the report were not yet implemented.

The other demands of the parents were the formation of district fee regulatory committees and setting up of parents and teachers associations. 

On the other hand, the school management said they should not be blamed as the coronavirus pandemic impacted everyone including the school managements.  They said they are in favour of school fee regulation so that if any school violates the others should not be blamed.