Hefty fees send parents scurrying to government schools in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Many parents are now preferring to send their children to government schools over private schools in Telangana. Parents blame the “hefty” school fees charged by private schools for moving their children to government schools. 

It has been more than 19 months that schools have been shut in the State, following the Covid-19 outbreak, resulting in online classes becoming the new normal. Since then, the parents of several students have raised their voices over the issue of exorbitant fees charged by the schools, even for online classes. Last year, the State government had warned of punitive action against the schools that fail to comply with its directions and issued GO 46 directing the schools to only charge tuition fees from the students. 

Alleging that several schools in the State have been blatantly violating the GO, parents claim that schools have clubbed multiple fee charges and put it under the umbrella of tuition fees to get away with the punitive action. However, the parents are forced to pay the same amount of school fees that they use to before the pandemic. “City schools looting students under the garb of school fees is now an open secret, but the officials are being oblivious about it,” said a parent. Another guardian said that if the parents are denying to pay the full fees, the school management, in some cases, have denied access to online classes to students.

Move led by financial crisis 
“Due to Covid-19, many families are reeling under a major financial crisis. And, despite the classes being completely online, the management of schools have been asking for full fees. This is why many parents are moving their wards to government schools,” said Kishor, a member of the Hyderabad School Parents’ Association.

The situation is not just in urban areas of the State, but also in rural districts. “This year, many students who are from poor families have dropped out of the schools, while many students who were in private schools are taking admission in our school. This is only because their parents do not want to spend as much for school fees as they were doing in private schools,” said H Shobharani, headmaster of the Boothpur government girls primary school in Mahabubnagar district. Meanwhile, there has been a sharp increase in private school shutdowns in the State. Due to fewer school admissions from 2019 and 2021, 742 private schools shut down in the State and around 300 in the city, reports say.