Proposed fee, insufficient for some schools

CHENNAI: The managements of many schools across the State will acknowledge that the fee fixation project is indeed jinxed. Eluding consensus and extending indefinitely, the government’s intent to regulate the fees charged by private city schools is anything but right, they contend.Several schools are voicing their criticism in response to the fee structure recommended by the Private School Fees Determination Committee under Justice Raviraja Pandian, calling it abysmally low for smaller schools while exceptionally high for the bigger ones. On Monday, the managements of these schools, under the aegis of the Tamil Nadu Nursery and Primary Schools Management Association, shot off a letter to the Chief Minister’s cell seeking her intervention in the contentious issue of fee fixation for private schools.“The fee for kindergarten is between `2,000 and `3,500 for most city schools. This is grossly insufficient,” says K Kumaraguru, vice president of the association. “If a school charges `2,000 for a class of 35 students, it earns around `5,800 per month. But the starting salary for a teacher trained in the Montessori method, which is a prerequisite, is over `4,000 per month. This gives the school a buffer of  `1,800 to pay the rent for the building, electricity, internet and other basic amenities. How can schools run on such a low fee?” asks Kumaraguru.The Raviraja Pandian committee’s report, formed following widespread dissatisfaction over Justice Govindarajan’s fee report, is not among the first initiatives in regulating school fees, Kumaraguru noted. A process to regulate school fees began as early as 2002, when a committee was formed under the leadership of former vice chancellor of the Annamalai and Madurai Kamarajar Universities, SC Chittibabu. The committee then recommended a fee structure of `2,400 per year for KG classes, which went up to `5,400 for Classes 11 and 12. The five-member committee’s report was then, however, ruled to be only a recommendation that schools could follow if possible.“Even that report, framed as early as eight years ago, gave school managements the right to collect `2,500 per year for KG classes. If the revised committee has only last week allotted the same fees for our schools, does it not imply that the new fee tables are too low? Also, we’re forced to stick to the same fee structure till 2013, which is unfair,” he said.