The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : School fees, a cause for concern

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Monday, Jun 22, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

School fees, a cause for concern

Meera Srinivasan

Photo: R.RAGU

Expensive proposition: Parents are caught between their dream to give their children good education and how it is increasingly getting less affordable. —

CHENNAI: Schools across boards are increasingly becoming unpopular among parents, thanks to the hike in fees. Families are finding it rather difficult to cope with the pressure of soaring school fees, while managements seem to have their own explanation for the increase.

Schools charging a huge sum as donation at the time of admission is not uncommon, but the sudden increase in tuition fees for all classes has put parents in a fix. “At my daughter’s school the fee has gone up by Rs.3,000 per term this year,” says the parent of a class V student.

His daughter goes to a private school in Adyar, which is affiliated to the CBSE.

The case in several Matriculation, Anglo-Indian, government-aided and even government schools is no different.

According to School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu, the department received as many as 87 complaints against various schools for collecting exorbitant fees from students. An announcement on the action to be taken on such schools will be made in the Assembly soon.

At present, a student of the Tamil medium stream is required to pay an annual fee of Rs. 25 towards PTA, Rs.3 as Flag Day contribution, between Rs. 15 and Rs. 25 towards expenses on printing question papers for the term and revision examinations. In the case of the English medium section, an additional Rs. 200 is charged from students in classes VI to VII; Rs. 250 from those in classes IX and X, and Rs. 500 from students in higher secondary sections.

Schools’ justification

However, heads of government schools seem to think it is virtually impossible to run a school with this fee structure. “We have to pay for the electricity bill, printing charges and so many miscellaneous expenses. Is the government giving us money for all this? No. How do we run a school,” asks the head of a government school, emphasising that government schools need more financial support from the government if the desired quality is to be achieved.

“Who will pay for repairs and maintenance. Will it do if a few PCs are given to our school. How will the school pay for servicing it? It is easy to say we are charging excess fees. But tell us how to pay for these expenses,” he adds.

Even the so-called posh schools never seem to miss a chance to collect additional fees.

At a CBSE school in South Chennai, students going to Class XI were asked to pay Rs.15,000 in addition to the first term fee of nearly Rs.9,000. However, parents were given a receipt only for the first-term fee.

“When we asked the school, they told us, it was for additional facilities. The very next day, I was asked to pay Rs.165 for my son’s lab coat,” said an angry parent. The tariff for the commerce stream was different. The student had to pay Rs.10,000 in addition to the regular fee.

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