The HSPA said the government did not comply with Telangana High Court's last-year order for legislation to curb exorbitant fee hikes.
The HSPA members address the media at Press Club on 8 July, Saturday. (Ajay Tomar/South First)
Sagar Kumar (name changed) has two children who study at Hyderabad’s prominent Manthan International School.
The “exorbitant hike” by the private school for the 2023-24 academic session has the 40-year-old worried.
“My daughter is in Class 7 and my son is in Class 3. In this academic year, the school has increased fees by 25 percent for Class 7 and 10 percent for Class 3. When the parents ask, such schools say that the surge is for their own expenses,” Kumar told South First.
He added that some schools charged extra for uniforms, textbooks and other miscellaneous things.
It should be noted that Manthan International School and CGR International School were reportedly booked in 2017 under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 188 (disobedience to order), and 418 (cheating with knowledge) for charging excess fees and donations in violation of government rules.
A similar issue is in the spotlight now, as the Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA) on Saturday, 8 July, saying that it has filed a “contempt case” against the Telangana government for not complying with a high court order from 11 March, 2022.
The HSPA has been fighting a consistent battle against the exorbitant fees of unaided private school in Hyderabad.
On 11 March, 2022, the Telangana High Court disposed of a writ petition filed by the HSPA, who were anguished by the huge sum of school fees charged by various unaided private schools in the state.
The parent associations were moreover distressed by the fact that the Telangana government did not frame any legislation to regulate the fee structure of the private schools after which the high court, while disposing of the petition, directed the state’s Education Department secretary to conclude all the deliberations and send her comments to the state government within three months of the order.
However, on 7 July, the deadline set by the court, the education secretary sought some more time, after which the court scheduled the next hearing in three weeks.
In March 2017, the Telangana government constituted a fee regulation committee headed by former vice-chancellor of Osmania University, T Thirupathi Rao.
The committee submitted its report in December 2017, and some clarifications in June 2018.
“Since then, the government has been sitting on the recommendations without taking any concrete actions to regulate fees of private schools,” HSPA Joint Secretary D Venkat Sai told reporters.
“The Telangana government can follow the model of the Gujarat and Rajasthan governments, who have formulated policies to regulate fees of private schools. Even the recommendations of the Professor Rao committee report were not made available to the HSPA even though we were part of the committee. Nor were they implemented,” HSPA President Ramanjeet Singh explained to South First.
Based out of Yousufguda, the HSPA is said to have over 10,000 members with the motto “fighting for affordable education”.
As per the HSPA, an internal meeting of the Telangana government took place on 2 March, 2022, to prepare guidelines over fee regulation in private unaided schools among other things.
A major point was that the hike in fees should not be more than 10 percent of those levied in the previous academic year.
Private unaided schools were also directed to submit detailed audit accounts to the school-level fee committee.
However, alleging loopholes in the balance sheet of several private schools based on its own investigation in 2017, the HSPA said that fees should be complementary to the facilities provided by the school and inflation needed to be kept in mind while hiking it.
“The schools are hiking fees by 10, 15, and even 25 percent year after year. I know several parents whose children’s school fees have gone up from 50 percent to 100 percent in the last few years in these private schools. In some cases, children who are in primary classes are paying more than those in secondary classes. How does this make sense?” asked Singh, adding that the salaries of employees are hiked by only 5-10 percent every year.
He alleged that some schools were charging three-four different sets of fees for students of the same class depending on which year they joined, as the base fee increases every year.
“It should be the same, isn’t it, as services are the same? But there is no regulation at all,” noted Singh.
“Upscale schools like CHIREC International School and Oakridge International School are bought by foreign companies as it is more profitable for business,” he claimed.
The HSPA members claimed that they came across instances of schools demanding donations from parents, for admissions.
The HSPA highlighted the Telangana government’s indifferent attitude, as was evident from the delay in the implementation of measures to control exorbitant fee hikes by private unaided schools.
“We have been fighting for parents’ rights since 2010, and the government has, to date, not woken up to ever-increasing problems faced by parents due to private schools increasing fees every year,” said Venkat Sai.
It added that there are several incidents of student suicides every year.
“There are incidents where children are not allowed to attend school due to unpaid fees. It creates a dangerous impact on the health and mindset of the child. Several parents are in debt due to fees,” said Singh, noting: “Education is a fundamental right.”
The HSPA now hopes that the Telangana government will take more permanent action in the matter, and come through a plan to issue a comprehensive government order on school fee regulation.
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