Fee woes: 1 lakh students’ no-show hits Telangana schools

HYDERABAD: About one lakh students from across 300 private budget schools of Hyderabad have been ‘missing’ from online classes over the last 12 months. Attributing this to the parents’ failure to pay fees, school managements on Saturday said that this data — collated by the Telangana State Recognised School Managements Association (TRSMA) — is indicative of two trends: Rise in number of dropouts and higher enrolment in free government schools.
Of the 2,041 private recognised schools in Hyderabad, close to 1,800 are budget schools that charge an annual fee of up to Rs 35,000. The average strength of these schools — located in areas such as Mehdipatnam, Marredpally, Kukatpally — is between 250 and 500. Hit by the pandemic in March, 2020 these schools, like all others, were forced to transition to online classes. A year later, 300 of them are staring at closure with majority of their students ‘missing’ in action.

“In many schools, the strength has dropped from 600 in 2019-20 to less than 300 in 2021-22 as many families with meagre or no income have not been able to pay fees or buy gadgets required to attend online classes. Multiple calls to parents have yielded no response. We are now wondering if we should consider these students as dropouts and shutdown our schools,” said S Madhusudan, advisor of TRSMA. He stressed the possibility of many students, from this no-show list, shifting to government schools without even seeking a transfer certificate.
Incidentally, teachers from government schools admit to more students from private schools turning up in their institutions over the last one year. “We have observed an up to 20% rise in enrollment from private to government schools. This is largely owing to the inability to pay fees,” said Chava Ravi, general secretary of Telangana State United Teachers Federation. He was, however, quick to add: “Enrollment in government schools seems like a temporary arrangement for many parents until physical classes resume (when they wouldn’t need gadgets, etc.).”
These dwindling numbers coupled with admissions in pre-primary and primary sections dropping to almost zero, has left school managements concerned about their survival. Given the dire situation of private budget schools, TRSMA is now collating more consolidated data on drop in enrollments across budget schools, learning outcomes among students etc., while urging the state government to reopen schools for physical classes.
“Many parents are of the view that if there are no physical classes, there is no need to pay any fee and that their children will be automatically promoted to the next class. In such a situation, it becomes extremely difficult for budget schools to stay afloat,” said Uma Maheshwara Rao, correspondent of a private budget school.
When TOI contacted R Rohini, district education officer, Hyderabad, for a comment, she said that they have received two or three closure applications from schools. “The TRSMA representatives reached out to me citing poor attendance for online classes. However, we are yet to independently verify their claims. We will extend help if schools seek closure citing genuine reasons,” said Rohini.