With no check from the authorities, the private schools continue to fleece parents of the students enrolled in the private educational institutions. The parents complained that the schools overcharge the monthly tuition fee and annual charges from the students enrolled in the educational institutions.
The complaints pour in at a time when a government’s SchoolFee Fixation Committee (SFFC) is in place to regulate the fee structure of theschools.
The parents of the students enrolled in Delhi Public School(DPS) Sangam in Anantnag district have accused the school management offleecing them.
A group of aggrieved parents alleged that the school hasfixed the exorbitant fee structure for the students without seeking permissionfrom the SFFC.
“The fee structure is always fixed arbitrarily withouttaking parents on board. Parents are not consulted while taking any policydecision,” the parents said.
Earlier, complaints were received against Minto CircleSchool here for giving arbitrary hike in its monthly fee structure withoutseeking proper permission from the competent authorities. Later, the schoolmanagement was instructed to charge the fee from students as per the old feestructure till the SFFC takes a call on the issue involved.
Meanwhile, the parents complained that these schools areminting money from them under the garb of disseminating education.
“The management of the schools never seeks suggestions fromparents before giving hike or fixing any fee structure for the students,” theaggrieved parents said.
A parent whose kid is studying in class 12th in DPS Sangamsaid the monthly fee has been fixed as Rs 4500 besides the school charges Rs2500 as annual charges.
Not only this but the school has also barred from sitting inTerm-I exams the scores of the students who have not submitted the annualcharges towards the school.
“Barring students from sitting in exams is a humiliation forthem. We have not enrolled our kids there to face such humiliation,” said aparent who wished not to be named.
The identity of parents has been kept hidden to avoidreprisal from school management against their kids.
The aggrieved parents appealed to the authorities in SchoolEducation Department to intervene and put a check on the arbitrary hike in feeby the school management.
Meanwhile an official in SFFC said a showcase notice wasissued to DPS Sangam in past but the parents didn’t follow the issue properly.”The parents should submit or email their grievances to the committee. Actionwill follow,” the official said.
The management head of DSP Sangam Abdul Rashid Sofi whencontacted said the fee structure of the school (DPS Sangam) was less than thatof DPS Budgam, Baramulla and Srinagar.
“They charge Rs 6000 per month but our students pay only Rs2500 as annual charges. The charges are three times less than other schools,”Sofi said.
When asked about barring students from sitting in exams, hesaid “It was the only option” to retrieve pending fee from the parents.
“What else can we do when parents keep their dues pendingfor more than five to six months. The expenditures including the salary of thestaff is met from the fee charged from the students,” he said.