Brace up to shell out a bomb for study in pvt inter colleges

Hyderabad: Taking advantage of the leniency of the state government towards fee hikes by private educational institutions, now, after private schools, this year even private junior colleges, especially in Science and Math streams have increased the fee exponentially, from 30 per cent to 40 per cent.

This excessive hike has led parents to urge the state government and Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) to come up with fee regulations in junior colleges. As compared to last year, this year parents need to pay almost double the amount. For instance, a day-scholar corporate college is charging Rs 2.25 lakh per year now, whereas last year the fee was around Rs 1.25 lakh. This year, Residential corporate college fees are around Rs 3 lakh per year, while the previous year fees were around Rs 2.5 lakh. Even the normal private colleges have also hiked their fees, from Rs 75,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh. Additionally, transportation and textbook costs are separate, as pointed out by the parents. They also said that the state government was supposed to form a committee for educational institutions but till date, no measures have been taken. It will be better if they form a committee that can put a hold on the fee increase.

“Even a normal college offering Intermediate courses is now charging about Rs 90,000 per year. For my son’s admission, I recently visited a junior college. Surprisingly, though the college lacked bare minimum facilities, they are charging Rs 1.5 lakh per annum. How is this fair? The fee when compared with last year has been increased by Rs 70,000,” said Ramesh, a father.

R Sravanthi, mother of an Intermediate student, said, “It’s a huge burden for parents like us to pay hefty fees every year. I don’t understand why private colleges have to hike fees every year. It was astonishing to see that in second year, the management hiked the fee by 50 percent.”

Satish G, president, Telangana Private Junior Colleges Managements Association, said, “As compared to last year, colleges, especially the corporate junior colleges have increased the fees. The fee for Intermediate courses should be fixed based on the location such as rural or urban. Likewise, the fee for coaching for competitive exams such as JEE and NEET, among others, should also be fixed, so that corporate colleges in the name of coaching for competitive exams will not include the charges in the tuition fee.”

Meanwhile, a senior official of TSBIE stated that recently, the Board has written to the government on fee regulation and is awaiting reply.