Corporate schools fleecing parents in many ways

Vijayawada: Taking advantage of the craze for English medium private schools among the parents, managements of private schools are fleecing the parents in the name of tuition fee, admission fee, books, uniforms and so on. Thousands of parents particularly belonging to middle-class and lower-middle class in Vijayawada city are suffering because they are not able to pay the exorbitant fee prescribed by the schools.

Highlights:

•    Private schools collecting RS 20,000 to Rs 40,000 as fee for high school student
•    Even for primary schoolkids, the fee is Rs10,000 to Rs20,000  depending on the reputation of the school
•    Private schools teacher-student ratio is 1:30, government schools have 1:20
•    Middle-class and below middle-class suffer most due to exorbitant fee by private schools
•    Mindset of parents changing with introduction of English medium in municipal schools

Fee structure ranges from Rs 20,000 to Rs 45,000 for the high school students in the corporate schools. Even the small schools, which have no basic facilities like playground, laboratory and qualified staff, are also demanding very high amount as fee. Some corporate schools are collecting more than Rs 10,000 for LKG and UKG classes. 

So is the case for the students of primary and high school level. Besides, the schools are fleecing parents in the name of tuition fee, special fee, books and uniforms.

In and around Vijayawada, more than one lakh students are studying in 270-odd private schools against the 40,000 students who are studying in 150-odd municipal, ZP high schools and aided schools in and around the city.Private schools are more in the urban areas compared to the semi-urban and rural areas, said K Ravi Kumar, Deputy Educational Officer, Vijayawada Urban. The government is spending more than Rs 20,000 crore every year for school education in the State.

Ravi Kumar said the government is appointing good qualified merit teachers to impart quality education to the children in the state. He said children in the government schools are studying in a stress-free environment compared to private schools.

He felt the attitude of the parents is gradually changing with the introduction of English medium education in the VMC schools. He regretted thousands of middle class families in and around the city are suffering after enrolling their children in the corporate schools because these schools are collecting exorbitant fee.

He admitted that there is no control on the fee demanded and collected by the corporate and non-corporate private schools.

Attitude of teachers working in the government schools is also changing gradually. The government introduced bio-metric system in all schools to keep vigil. The government is maintaining the teacher and student ratio at 1:20 to increase the quality of education in the government schools.

According to HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, who presented details of schools in the state in the Legislative Council recently, the State government is imparting free education to 35 lakh children with the strength of 1.86 lakh teachers working in 44,000 government schools. On the other hand, private schools maintain 1:30 teacher and students ratio on average in the State. Nearly 28 lakh students are studying in about 15,000 schools with the strength of 96,000 teachers.

When compared to the teachers working in private schools, the educational qualifications of teachers working in government schools are very high, said S Ramakrishna, president of the Municipal Teachers Federation (MTF). 

He said the mindset of parents in urban areas is changing gradually and now they are opting for municipal English medium schools. He said many families are unable to pay the fee demanded by the corporate English medium schools. Private schools particularly corporate schools are collecting Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 for books, nearly Rs 2,000 for uniform (depending on the number of pairs). Admission fee ranges from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500.

MLCs Boddu Nageswara Rao and V Balasubramanyam demanded in the recently concluded Legislative Council that proper mechanism should be developed to prevent fleecing of parents by the corporate schools. 

By Md Ameen