Middle class parents in Hyderabad who were obliged to pay substantially higher primary-secondary school fees two years ago — although at the start of the academic year 2010-11 they were spared — are bracing for tuition fee hikes of 10-30 percent in June-July this year. Most parents associations are busy organ-ising themselves for citywide protests in months to come.
Already a large number of international schools in Hyderabad including Chirec Public, Oakridge International, Meridian, Delhi Public, Glendale Academy and Jain Heritage among others have announced 10-30 percent fee increases for the new academic year beginning June/July.
Moreover some private schools which have raised tuition fees modestly, have raised them indirectly by making the use of school buses and/or meals comp-ulsory (Chirec) and mandating changed uniforms (Meridian). “The changed uniform is nothing but an indirect imposition to fill school coffers as we are obliged to buy uniforms from vendors selected by the school on which there is a substantial mark-up. This is just another way of raising school fees,” says an irate Meridian School parent.
Likewise the parents community of Glendale Academy is up in arms against the school management announcing a 20 percent increase in tuition fees to Rs.93,600 per annum for the forthcoming academic year. “We are currently in the process of forming a parents association. Last year too, the management had hiked school fees by 20 percent without any improvement in the quality of services or infrastructure provided,” says an aggrieved parent.
On the other hand institutional managements cite the need to hike teachers’ salaries to stem faculty flight to new international schools levying Rs.3-4 lakh annually as tuition fees, steep increases in electricity, water and infrastructure augmentation and maintenance costs.
On August 6, 2009 the state government ordered formation of district fee regulation committees (DFRCs) to determine tuition fees in private schools following an uproar by the parents’ comm-unity. But this government directive was challenged by private school managements in the Andhra high court, which in a 114-page judgement dated August 27, 2010 directed the government to establish a mechanism for proper appraisal of school fee structures to check profiteering. However questioning the state govern-ment’s jurisdiction over private schools, the court struck down the DFRCs as unconstit-utional.
With the state government having failed to establish the recommended machinery, private school managements have been free to determine their fees. Meanwhile they are disinclined to be defensive about rising tuition fees. “A 5-10 percent rise in tuition fees annually is inevitable in these inflationary times,” says Sangeeta Varma, general secretary Andhra Pradesh Private Schools Management Association (APPSMA). “Rising admi-nistrative expenses such as increase in rents of school buildings, teachers’ salaries and higher infrastructure addition and maintenance costs make higher tuition fees inevitable. Parents should accept them as the price of high quality K-12 education,” she adds.
What Varma leaves unsaid for politically correct reasons is that complaining parents have the option to vote with their feet and enrol their children in free-of-charge government schools. But with India’s pampered subsidies-addicted middle class unwilling to exercise this option, they prefer to pressurise private school managements to provide first world education at third world prices.
Quite clearly parents need to be educated that the era of free lunches is ending in the new globalised world.
S. Pratibha (Hyderabad)