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TN, time to wake up to fees and other big-fat issues!- 13-Aug-2015
Private schools and the issue of hefty school fees have been dogging both parents and the government for a while now but the latters inability to bring things under its control has been complicated by the craze for top English-medium schools and poor schools that find it hard to make the both ends meet.
The Telangana government on Wednesday appointed a high-powered committee to examine the fee structure of all private schools (both ICSE and CBSE) and recommend action against those acting arbitrarily. It turns out to be a wake-up call for other state government that need to pull up their socks and check the issue of exorbitant feed that bugs middle-class parents.
The Telengana government move comes a day after the Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA), the largest representative body of parents of school-going children, threatened to move the Supreme Court against the governments inaction in controlling fee hikes. The association alleged that most private schools charge steep fees and even ask for huge donations.
Most of the private schools set their fees according to their own will and fancy. Sudden and unwarranted fee hikes cannot be questioned. As the competition among private schools increases, each of them, in a bid to stand out, offer extra facilities and out-of-the-box extra-curricular activities to attract the parents. As a result, their running cost goes up, which eventually fall on the shoulders of the parents who admit their wards to those schools.
What will the Telangana committee do?
Comprising deputy education officers, additional directors and auditors and headed by the regional joint director of school education, the panel would, inspect all the schools against which complaints have been received. A report would be submitted by the committee after which action against schools would be initiated," deputy chief minister and education minister Kadiyam Srihari was quoted as saying.
Analysts said the move was a significant step towards bringing some accountability and curb forcible payment of donations and steep hike in fees every year. Education department officials said errant schools could face legal action and even cancellation of NoCs.
As part of inspections, the committee would send notices to the schools from Thursday onwards.
Need of the hour
The need of the hour is to establish statutory bodies to monitor and check fee structures of private schools, at state and national levels. Driven by huge lots of vacant seats and cut-throat competition, private engineering colleges are going overboard in attracting students, with facilities like on-campus shopping malls, beauty parlours, gymnasiums, Wi-Fi and Jacuzzi; and freebies like laptops, foreign trips and generous scholarships. Following their footsteps, some of the schools, too, have started to hard-sell their education with extras, even while failing to improve the quality of their education.
Even while a revamp is necessary to develop this mark-driven education system, committees are required to monitor the functioning and every aspect of private schools, to make them more accountable. Steps have to be taken to ensure that students are not stressed with overload of books and work, while making education more practical and useful by increasing their interest and quality of education.
