HSPA hopeful after meeting ESL

AGITATION AGAINST SCHOOL FEE HIKE INTENSIFIES

A silent revolution that began on a modest note with the coming together of thousands of parents and guardians of school-going children from the twin cities gained momentum on Tuesday. The gathering storm that is likely to impact school education and also fee restructuring one way or the other, quite ironically had first pit-stop in Raj Bhavan.

On the face of it, Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA) is a not-for-profit organisation that has been formed by likeminded Parents, whose wards are studying in various schools in the GHMC jurisdiction. It has been at the forefront of the agitation against ‘irrational’ and ‘indiscriminate fee hikes’ by Private unaided schools.

According to HSPA President, Vikrant Varshney, vexed with the red-tapism and school managements’ apathy to myriad please, the Association has joined forces with and Joint Action Committee for School Fee Regulation (JAC-SFR) so that they could put pressure on the government to intervene and come to their rescue.

In its quest to intensify their efforts and help reach out to a larger audience of policymakers, they have decided to meet all top government authorities and leaders seeking their intervention and justifiable acts that could bring relief the harrowed guardians.

It took off on Tuesday with a 45-minute meeting a five-member delegation had with ESL Narasimhan, who gave a ‘patient’ hearing’ and assured to ‘help the Association’ in whatever capacity he could.

‘We were glad that the Governor was taking a personal interest in subjects like education and health. We were pleasantly surprised that he supported the demand for an MRP (Maximum Retail Price) on school fees,’ Varshney claimed.

In a hard-hitting petition submitted to the Governor, the Association has cited several acts of omissions and commissions committed by successive governments.

Lashing out at the grotesque manner the policymakers were heeding to their please, the Association has been particularly critical of the ever increasing tuition fee in the private schools of the State, There are approximately 34 lakh students in private schools in the State Telangana as against 28 lakh enrolled in government schools.

The Association lamented that school fees has been increasing exponentially in the last one decade with some institution indulging in daylight robbery with an audacious 400 percent increase, which was ‘preposterous.’

They said that there has been no GO with regard to regulation of school fee and there has been uniform structure mandate even as the enquiry committees were proving to be damp-squibs.

The written complaint points out at how the government was a turning a Nelson’s Eye even as television channels had telecast several school representatives collecting illegal donations and capitation fees. The PIL in High Courts has also not brought any change in heart among the management personnel.

They reiterated their demands, which include a clear-cut direction from the government that there would no fee hike for the 2016-17 academic year and enacting a new law providing for statutory status to the Autonomous Fee Regulator, which is already in vogue in neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, the HSPA members are likely to meet the Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Kadiyam Srihari. ‘Eventually, we hope that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will rise to the occasion and take a decision that will bring a much-needed relief to the distraught guardians,’ Varshney said.