12 January,2011 07:42 AM IST | | Alifiya Khan
After MiD DAY series on problems in education sector, NGO writes in with parents' complaints against Sinhgad Springdale School's increase in fees from Rs 14,000u00a0 to Rs 21,100 within a year
A DAY after MiD DAY wrapped up its series on fee hikes across city schools and the problems that ail the education sector, an NGO that works across the state wrote in to highlight a case of fee hike in a city school.
In the letter emailed to MiD DAY by the Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE), the NGO attached complaints from parents of students of Sinhgad Springdale School in Narhe. The parents stated that the school had hiked fees by more than 50 per cent.
According to the FFE, the school had not only been hiking its fees from 2008 but also collecting fees under the head 'other fees', the exact nature of which was unknown to parents.
"According to the complaints by parents, in 2008 the school charged Rs 10,200, which increased to Rs 11,500 in 2009. In 2010, they charged Rs 14,000 from parents, and now it has handed out circulars saying the coming year the fees will be Rs 21,100," said Jayant Jain, president of FFE. "This means in just one year, fees have risen by more than 50 per cent. Is not this injustice to the parents?"
Jain added that apart from school fees, the 'other fees' had also increased in the same time period to Rs 7,500 from Rs 5,000.
"The school earlier used to specify what the 'other fees' was, but the last few years, it has stopped doing so," said Jain. "Why should the parents pay fees for something that is not being accounted for? The school must explain its charges."
No choice: School
MiD DAY took up the issue with the management of the school, which did accepted the fees had been hiked by more than 50 per cent.
"We feel bad for parents too but we are in a tricky situation. We have to pay hiked salaries to our teaching and non-teaching staff as the government has implemented the Sixth Pay Commission. Besides that, transport, electricity, water and other costs have gone up tremendously," said A V Deshpande, registrar of the Sinhgad Technical Education Society, which runs the school.
"There is nearly 50 per cent rise in school expenditure and we had no choice but to hike fees so that we are not forced to cut down on teaching staff or facilities. Ultimately students will suffer if there are fewer teachers or if we can not give good infrastructure, for which we had to take this step."
On the issue of charging 'other fees' without explaining what it was, he promised to rectify the mistake.
"Of course parents have a right to know what they are paying for. I didn't know about this and will look into it and get it rectified," said Deshpande.
