Private schools fill coffers with fee loot

Telangana Parents Association alleges that the erring schools are having an annual turnover of Rs 12,500 crore

Hyderabad: With no control over fee structure, private schools in the State are allegedly making a killing, with an annual turnover of Rs 12,500 crore, which is Rs 3,000 crore more than the previous financial year’s annual allocation by the government for the Education department.

The government has allocated Rs 9,500 crore to the Education Department in the 2016-17 financial year and in the same year the business turnover of private schools was about Rs 12,500 crore. This figure was calculated by the Telangana Parents’ Association which studied the private education system.

The association found that private education was a big business in Telangana among all the States. As much as 32.71 lakh students were admitted to private schools. Students studying in private schools form 54 per cent of the total students in the State, whereas the country’s average is 31 per cent.

The government failed to control the fee structure in the State which has been rising at the rate of 15 per cent every year. Though there have been agitations from 2008 to rein in the private schools, little has been achieved. The order issued by the government in 2009 to regulate the fees in private schools was not implemented due to the intervention of the courts.

Recently, the government has established a committee to look into the issue and to draft an order to regulate the fee structure in private schools. The committee is likely to meet on Tuesday to discuss the issue.

The government has proposed that private schools should not collect donations, one time fees should not be more than the prescribed one. Application fee should be under Rs 100, registration fee should not be more than Rs 500 and caution deposit should not cross Rs 5,000. No other onetime fee other than these should be collected.

Laying out the criteria to determine the tuition fee, the government said salaries of teachers, benefits, maintenance cost, development activities cost, running expenses, basic amenities cost and management revenue should be taken into consideration.

Extracurricular activities should not be included in the tuition fee, and fee of co-curricular activities being accepted by the parents’ committee could be collected. Management should announce additional activities and their purposes.

All the commercial activities like collecting user charges for textbooks, notebooks, stationary and uniforms should not be held. No promotional activities should be taken up by private educational institutions.

The government’s proposals on fee regulation include fee regulatory committee at the district level, maintenance of accounts and verification of records. The fee structure, being announced by the fee regulatory committee would be in place for three years.

Naming the schools like Olympiad, Concept, E Techno, Vision, Excellence, International, Brilliant and others is banned. Bio data of the students should be placed in the websites.

However, while agreeing with the proposals of the government, the Telangana Parents Association has been demanding a mechanism to check the implementation of fee regulatory system. A committee headed by High Court Judge should be formed in this regard, TPA demanded. Social audit committees should be formed to check the implementation of fee regulation activities.