Bangalore : The managements of some private educational institutions appear to be adopting ingenious ways to make good the ‘loss’ they will suffer by admitting students under the 25 per cent quota prescribed by Right to Education Act.

They have effected a manifold increase in the fee for the students admitted under the unreserved category.

The State government reimburses Rs 11,848 per annum to each student admitted under the RTE quota in private schools. However, many schools have claimed that they had not received the money and hence are finding it difficult to admit students under the quota. Consequently, the burden has now shifted to the students of unreserved category with the schools hiking the fee exponentially.

A private school near Hennur in the City has sent out e-mails to parents informing them of a 100 per cent hike in the fee for the coming academic year. So much so that the monthly fee for kindergarten has almost doubled to Rs 7,150 from the earlier Rs 3,750.

Similarly, the annual fee for class I has been increased to Rs 89,000 from Rs 55,000. The fee does not include books, school van charges and expenses for food, which will be collected separately, parents said.

‘Be prepared’

The post on the school’s website, which states that the parents have to be prepared to face the ‘impact’ of RTE quota, puts it more succinctly:

“Applicants seeking admission in 2013-14 will most likely be directly impacted by the implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE) when it comes to the availability of seats and with regards to the school fees. Therefore, if you are not already familiar with the RTE Act, we would strongly recommend that you take some time to familiarize yourself with and review the articles online (refer to leading newspapers’ websites) with regards to the Right to Education Act that has been passed by the Supreme Court of India…”
A director of the managing committee of the school said hiking the fee was the only way to recover operational costs.

According to parents, they have been told that they could withdraw their children from the school if they were unwilling to shell out the additional money towards fee.
The phenomenal increase in the fee coupled with the ‘offer’ for withdrawing their students from the school has left the parents flummoxed.

“We are shocked. It was only last year that the school hiked the fee. We did not think they would increase it again and that too by such a huge sum. The last date for obtaining transfer certificate has been extended till January 18. But it is of no use as we will not be able to secure admissions at any other school at this time of the year,” said a parent, whose child will be stepping into class I in this school.

For the first time, the private schools are furnishing the details of their expenditure to the government. Uma Shankar, Commissioner, Department of Public Instruction, said attempts to fix a ceiling on the fee collected by private schools have not been successful.

However, she said the government will be forced to intervene, as done in the case of medical and engineering colleges, if the schools begin to exploit RTE Act for their benefit.

DHNS