As the school year starts, parents in Karnataka are facing an even heavier financial price with a sudden spike in tuition by private schools.
A raft of schools have apparently raised tuition and other fees by 8% to 15%, and families have been left surprised and enraged, the report says. There are still other parents claiming that the tuition they pay transportation, uniforms, books, notebooks, and even their families’ at such steep increases are happening with no notice; and that schools are raising them without them knowing.
The sudden rise has fueled widespread anger among middle-class families already grappling with rising living costs. Even though the government already has guidelines on regulation of fees, parents alleged no one is held responsible when private schools hike fees multiple times each year.
What Do the Guidelines Say?
Private schools are authorized to set their own fee structures as established by the education department. But they cannot charge excessive or unjustly high fees. Schools must cite good reasons for annual rises, including:
- Staff salary revisions.
- This includes infrastructure development, operational and maintenance costs.
- The rules similarly stress transparency of fee collection.
In addition to the above, schools owe an obligation to disclose all direct and indirect costs (tax collection in the form of tuition, transport, books and uniforms, among others) of tuition to schools explicitly and transparently. Crucially, institutions shouldn’t be able to hike an expense suddenly or arbitrarily without having given parents notice beforehand.
Authorities have also said parents could file complaints if they think schools are collecting an unfair fee. The government may set up a fee regulatory committee to investigate such grievances. Yet despite these measures, parents say that these year-over-year fee hikes flow unchecked.
Parents Angry Over Additional Expenses
In addition to the tuition fees that other schools now charge, various companies are also turning the buying of uniforms, notebooks and study paper into a cost of attendance to school, with some schools requiring them to purchase uniform, notebook or study paper using specific vendors, further stressing the financial burden on families.
Parents have asked whether any effective control is exerted over private education institutions, and what it means for schools still to raise fees at any time. Many are also requiring greater monitoring and more aggressive government action in order to curb what they believe is an “expensive fee collection racket” by some private schools.
Why are Private Schools Raising Their Fees?
Private school managers, by contrast, contend operational costs have gone up to a much higher level over the years. The reasons for the fee increases, school officials said, include:
- Openings of additional schools as competitive competition intensifies.
- Reduced admissions of students at some institutions.
- Rising employee salaries.
- More electricity and water expenses.
- Higher professional tax, PF and ESI charges.
- Maintenance and infrastructure expenses.
School managements said that these financial pressures would make revisions to annual fees unavoidable. Parents, meanwhile, say education is increasingly unaffordable and they are calling on the Karnataka government to roll out tighter rules to oversee private school fees and ensure fair practices in schools.
