Department of Public Instruction likely to recommend 25-30% cut in school fees

After receiving representations from parents and parents’ associations, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is likely to recommend a fee cut in the range of 25 to 30 % for the current academic year.

The department has also decided to submit a report to the State government after a meeting last week with representatives of parents’ associations and private school managements regarding concerns over the fee structure for the current academic year.

The fee reduction is likely to be recommended to all private schools - State syallabus as well as central board schools - as the issue of fee structure falls under the purview of the State government.

Recurring expenditure

While parents alleged that private school managements were collecting fees even for recurring expenditure they were not incurring this academic year due to the pandemic as the schools were shut, school managements were anxious that majority of the parents had not paid the school fees and hence were unable to pay salaries to their staff.

A senior official of the department said that after the meeting last week, they realised that many school managements were collecting fees for infrastructure, transport, and other fees that were unnecessary.

“We plan to list out subheads under which schools can collect fees and also want to list out fees that schools need not collect this year as physical classes for most grades have still not resumed,” an official said.

While a section of private schools affiliated to the State syllabus have decided to cut fees by 25% for this academic year, many schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have decided to waive fees for a section of parents. This comes in the backdrop of several parents undergoing financial crisis due to the pandemic as many have lost jobs and faced salary cuts.

B.N. Yogananda, general secretary of RTE Students and Parents’ Association, welcomed the intervention of the department and said that several school managements were fleecing parents in the name of online classes and were restricting access to these classes if parents had not paid the fees. He said that they wanted reduction in the percentage of fees based on the student strength.