‘6 per cent parents think govt has worked to control fee hike’

Parents of students from schools in Pune, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Panvel, Nagpur and Aurangabad staged a protest at Sena Bhavan against fee hike in January this year. File pic

A survey conducted by LocalCircles - a community social media platform - has revealed that only 6 per cent of parents believe that the government has worked effectively in regulating school fees, while 51 per cent has reported hike in fee structures. The survey was conducted to find out what parents in the state think of the overall fee structure for the new academic year.

To one of the questions asked - ‘How have the schools your children study in implemented the overall fee structure for the year 2021-22? - 51 per cent of respondents reported a hike in school fees. Of those, 2 per cent said the hike was more than 20 per cent and 17 per cent said it was between 10-20 per cent. When asked - ‘How do you rate the actions of the state government in regulating fee hike by schools during the pandemic?' - only 6 per cent said it was effective, 48 per cent respondents said it has been ineffective and 22 per cent shared that the government did not take any action at all.

"As the new academic year has started through the online mode across most of the urban and semi-urban locations of India, in the last 30 days LocalCircles received a number of complaints from parents about increase in tuition fee. There has been unrest among parents of schoolchildren regarding the hike in fees by private schools," said Sachin Taparia, founder of LocalCircles.

While at the state level the survey was held with over 2,000 respondents, a similar one was held at the national level with over 3,500 respondents.

Pending RTE reimbursements

While on one hand the survey shows that parents are extremely worried about the school fee structures, on the other several private school managements have come together against the state government for making their survival difficult.

So much so that the Independent English Schools Association (IESA) has issued a note stating that they are willing to surrender their approvals if the government continues to issue threats of derecognising them over fee issues.

"All this while, school managements have been sympathetic towards families who have lost jobs due to Covid, by granting their wards waivers and scholarships. Even those who have suffered huge pay cuts and massive business losses are being helped. Not to mention thousands of kids who are taught through RTE, funds for which seldom arrive on time from the government. Given all these constraints, school managements keep hoping that parents who are not under financial stress will clear their dues on time. But due to a lot of confusion in communications issued by the state government, a substantial number of parents have become reluctant in paying their dues. Keeping the institutions alive is not for profiteering but to ensure that thousands of children are not deprived of education," reads the statement issued by the IESA.