A private school named Sri Vijaya Vidyaniketan at Ullikallu village was closed down by its owner who was struggling to stay afloat after receiving no income through fees since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, 2020.
B. Obul Narayana Reddy and his wife Sunitha had set up the school in 2014, but were forced to shut shop after parents refused to pay fees ever since the outbreak of the first wave of the pandemic last year. To make matters worse, he had to sell 12 acres of his land in Gangadevipalli to repay the debt of ₹25 lakh he had incurred while running theschool and for acquiring two buses.
“We had to pay ₹90,000 per year for leasing out the land and small sheds in it at Ullikallu village close to Nayanapalli on the Anantapur-Tadipatri Highway and pay the salaries of 12 teachers for a few months,” Mr. Narayana Reddy told The Hindu .
With his debts mounting every passing day, Mr. Narayana Reddy said he defaulted on the EMIs for the two school buses, which the financier sold for a song even after 25 instalments being paid.
Mr. Narayana Reddy, who holds an M.Sc in analytical chemistry, now works as headmaster of Netaji School at Narpala village for a paltry salary in order to support his family that includes a 9-month-old baby.
He doubles up as a freelance BPO operator for a Hyderabad-based pharma company during nights, and sleeps for three to four hours a day. “Forty students are yet to pay large amounts of fees and have shifted to government schools without obtaining transfer certificates (TCs) as the government has allowed enrolment of students without a TC if they show an Aadhaar Card, which along with the Amma Vodi scheme has hit many private schools hard,” he said.
With the government dividing the schooling into Classes 1 to 4; Classes 5 to 7 and 8 to 12 under different categories, private schools need to pay ₹30,000 for renewal of each category, which adds to the financial burden, he said.
