Fees should be commensurate with the facilities provided because schools are charging for services, not engaging in “extortion”, several school heads said.
A steep fee hike of 50% could amount to malpractice, but reasonable increases were necessary to sustain quality education and infrastructure, said one principal, requesting anonymity.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday spoke about the need for government intervention to regulate fees at private educational institutions while addressing a programme to felicitate students from state boards, ICSE and CBSE schools for academic excellence.
This is not the first time a Bengal government has attempted to regulate private school fees. Both the Left and Trinamool governments had earlier expressed similar intentions.
Several school heads said on Tuesday that such proposals had surfaced before but had not materialised.
“The education system of Bengal is largely shouldered by private institutions. We are clear that fees should be commensurate with the facilities provided. If I am providing facilities against a certain fee, it is not extortion but value for money, and a school cannot be prevented from doing so,” said Terence John, director of education and development, Julien Day Schools in Calcutta, Howrah, Kalyani and Ganganagar.
“All establishments charge for the services they provide,” he added.
John said his schools had never raised fees by more than 10% except during implementation of pay commission recommendations. “The government insists that we pay teachers salaries on a par with or close to those in government schools. We are a private unaided institution and receive no financial aid from the government. So the government cannot prevent us from raising fees by a reasonable amount to meet salary obligations,” he said.
Fee regulation could affect the functioning of the whole school, one head warned.
“We need good teachers if we want to provide quality education. Even now, many teachers prefer relocating to cities like Hyderabad or Bangalore, where the pay packages are better than in Calcutta,” said the principal of a CBSE school.
Another school head said there could be no standardisation of fees because each institution offered different facilities and opportunities. “No single formula can standardise fee structures. If fees are regulated, services will have to be curtailed. Parents may initially feel relieved, but ultimately it will affect school activities,” the principal said.
School education extends beyond academics and includes all-round development, exposure and extracurricular activities, many said. Private schools in the city differ widely in amenities, which is reflected in their fee structures.
“I am sure the government will consider the quality of education and facilities being provided. It is not that we charge separately for every amenity, but there is a composite cost attached to quality that cannot be ignored,” said Major General V.N. Chaturvedi, secretary general of the Vidya Mandir Society, which runs Birla High School, Sushila Birla Girls’ School and Birla High School Mukundapur.
The group has introduced skill and innovation labs and plans to start an astronomy and space lab at one of its schools.
Many private schools now offer air-conditioned classrooms, indoor sports arenas, auditoriums, robotics facilities, personalised tablets and maths labs.
“It is important for schools to maintain a balanced fee structure while considering parents’ limitations. Whenever we have raised fees in the last 15 years, it has never exceeded 10%,” said Pradip Agarwal, CEO of The Heritage Group of Institutions that runs The Heritage School.
“The customer is the child, but schools must also consider the parents’ point of view,” he said, adding that schools should develop in-house resources instead of outsourcing services because that would reduce costs and ease the financial burden on parents.