Schools want liberty to fix fee

HYDERABAD: With the government siding with the parents and issuing a memo to schools forbidding them from hiking the fee until directed, the private schools’ association too have decided to approach the government on the fee stay.

Stating that fixing and increasing the fee is sole prerogative of schools’ managements, private schools owners said the government had no right to freeze the fee, even if it was temporary.

“Nearly 90 per cent of the schools are budget schools and with the fee structure of all schools on website, parents can take a pick from the schools that suit their budget,” said S Madhusudhan, president of Private Schools Association of Hyderabad. He suggested that the State should fix a ceiling on fee by taking amount it spends on each child annually i.e, `42,000 as the base. Schools that charge below this should be allowed to raise the fee without getting approval from the government and be categorised as budget schools.

The association is likely to submit a representation to the government in the next couple of days. School managements also want that the liberty of fixing fee, which is bound to increase yearly due to rising costs of expenditure, should be exclusively theirs. “Fee has to be increased accordingly to cover up the rising costs,” said Anjali Razdan, vice-chairperson of the CBSE Schools’ Association.