Pvt schools leave parents in lurch; Fee hike goes unchecked

Syed Amjad Shah

JAmmu, Apr 20: Working as autonomous bodies, some reputed private schools have once again left the parents of their students in lurch with sudden raise in their fee structures in the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, causing great financial crises to the parents whose children are pursuing studies in such schools.

The parents in such reputed schools have admitted their children so that they may grow as respectable citizen of the society but now it has almost become impossible for many to continute their wards in such schools due to the sky rocketing increase in the fee structure.

Mohammed Farooq, one of the aggrieved parents, says that he admitted his son and a daughter at Nagbani School with the hope that by receiving standard education from Nagbani School, future of his wards would be bright.

“However, today I feel helpless as I cannot afford fee”, Farooq, who is a constable in Jammu and Kashmir Police and gets salary of Rs 8,500 per month, told.

Another parent Mukesh Sharma had the same feelings. He said that sudden hike in fee structure have made him to think to admit his child in a government school since, “I cannot bear the more financial burden”.

“Parents have been blackmailed on the name of their children by the school authorities” Santosh Kumari mother of a student said. Meanwhile, MHAC Nagbani School Parents Association also held a press conference here today and urged the Nagbani school administration not to increase their fee structure.

Addressing reporters, officer bearers of MHAC Nagbani School Parents Association said that more that 90 percent tuition fee has been increased on the plea that salary of staff was to be raised according to the sixth pay commission.

Association told reporters that massive hike in fee structure is unjustifiable as most of the parents of the students are small scale businessmen, private employees, Kashmiri migrants, and poor villagers who would not be able to bear this abnormal hike.

The Association members also expressed concern over the crowded class rooms, and alleged more than 60 students have been taught in a single class room. They said that due to the crowded class rooms’ teacher are unable to adequately teach the students. Hence, average students who need attention from the teacher remain unattended whereas superior students easily grasp which is being taught in the crowded classes.

“This results into the deterioration of education standard as proper attention is not being paid to the individual students, adding said strength of a section should not be more than 30 students as per CBSE guidelines”, the office bearers said. They again alleged that most of the schools in Jammu have been offering 25 percent of rebate in tuition fee for real brother/sister studying in the same school instead at Nagbani, they said adding, offering only ten percent rebate for the same.

The parents urged the administration that they should give them 25 percent rebate in tuition fee for real brother/sister studying in the said school. In this connection, Shiv Sena Hindustan staged a protest in front of Press Club of Jammu against the CBSE schools and urged the state government Director School Education to maintain proper check on the recent fee hike, annual charges, besides other things which are being done by the said schools on their own.