In the new academic year, parents may be faced with an increase in fees at city schools. With many schools having to undertake extensive repair work because of the floods in Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts, they will be approaching the Tamil Nadu Private Schools Fee Determination Committee to include the repair cost in the fees levied to the parents.
While schools had already planned to submit their bills to the committee after the November- 16 floods, the extent of damage had increased after the December-1 floods. Some schools are asking for an increase of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000 in fees, sources said.
Since November 8, when schools closed because of extensive rains, there have been two floods: one on November 16 and then on December 1 when the entire city was flooded.
During this time, many schools in the city were damaged, with a majority of them having to undertake repair work, and many more losing documents and furniture in the floods.
Additional work
Private schools are planning to appeal to the fee-fixation committee to increase their fees for the year to include the additional maintenance work they have undertaken because of the rains.
According to B. Purushothaman, State education advisor, Tamil Nadu Nursery, Primary Matriculation Higher Secondary Schools Association, all schools have had to undertake a thorough assessment and replace furniture and electrical and sanitation fittings to ensure that the institutions are safe for children.
These are not trivial expenses for the school, so we intend to petition the fee committee, he said.
In the 2016-17 academic year, around 90 per cent of the schools are due for a fee revision.
The Education Department says they will examine the cost on a case-by-case basis before making a decision.
Activists and parents, however, are not very pleased with the decision. S. Arumainathan, secretary, Tamil Nadu Students Parents Welfare Association, said, “Many families have had to shell out large sums of money to bring their lives back to normality.
“Many people have lost all their certificates, money and any number of belongings. Their expenses will increase this time, forcing them to pay a higher fee is unfair,” he said.
Parents, too, feel that an increase in fees at this time will be unfair.
“Schools are educational institutions and they can raise funds through other means like donations or trust funds. There is no means to justify a new student joining the school next year being asked to pay for the damage suffered by the school in the past. Schools should not be increasing the fee for expenses incurred by them due to a natural calamity,” says Ninan Thariyan, a parent of a child studying in Lalaji Memorial Omega International School (LMOIS).
(Additional Reporting Gayathree Ganesan)
