A hike in fees has made some guardians of students of Bidhannagar Municipal School rise in protest. They have shot off a letter to the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation demanding a rollback. The mayor, who is also the president of the school’s managing committee, has sought an explanation from the school about why he was informed about the decision.

The school’s tuition fees have been hiked to Rs 800 per month from this year. The hike, sources in the school say, has come after a gap of more than three years. So long, it was Rs 600 per month.

Several parents of the school expressed their displeasure about the sudden hike in fees when The Telegraph Salt Lake approached them. 

According to Nandita Ghosh, a mother of a student who studies in Class X, the decision has taken them by surprise. “The school suddenly put up a notice asking us to pay Rs 200 more per month. Not everyone who studies here hails from well-to-do families and this is likely to hit our monthly budget,” said Ghosh, who had come to take her ward back home after school on Wednesday.

Another parent who did not wish to be named said that even admission fees had been hiked without prior intimation. “Earlier we used to pay Rs 5,150 as admission fees. Now the school has hiked it to around Rs 7,150,” said a mother of a Class VIII student.

School sources said that the hike had been decided upon after talking into account the cost escalation in running the school as well as the spending capacity of the parents.

“The day-to-day running costs of the school are escalating and we are running short of funds every month,. So we decided to raise the fees by a very small margin,” said the official.

Inaugurated in 1999, the school is affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and has both primary and secondary sections. Housed in a three-storeyed building in FE Block opposite Central Park, the institution allows students to opt for either English or Bengali as their mode of instruction. Apart from Salt Lake, the school draws students from Baguiati, Ultadanga and Rajarhat.

Principal Bhaswati Chakraborty said the school had been forced to hike fees to “ensure the safety of students”.

“Chunks are falling off the ceiling. It is a safety hazard. We do not charge development fees and we do not have the funds to undertake repairs. We had asked parents informally if they had any objection to a fee hike and most did not. It is only a section which has sought the Corporation’s intervention,” Chakraborty told The Telegraph Salt Lake. 

The school is severely cash-strapped. While its income is around Rs 16 lakh, around Rs 25 lakh is needed to disburse salaries. The deficit of Rs 9 lakh is offset by the lumpsum received as readmission fees from students every year.
Chakraborty said she had informed the education department of the state of affairs.

Civic grouse
The corporation’s main objection is that the fees had been hiked without informing the managing committee. The school, a civic official said, was being run by an ad hoc committee for about a year and half without any representation from the Corporation. A new managing committee was formed in November with the mayor as president and three councillors, other than teachers and guardians’ representatives. So far it has met only once. 

The mayor of Bidhanagar Municipal Corporation, Sabyasachi Dutta, admitted that the civic body had received a letter asking for a rollback in the fee hike from the parents.

The corporation has sent a letter to the school asking why they were not informed about the fee hike by the school authorities.

“We have asked the school to specify what role they expect the corporation to play since we are not being kept updated about key decisions,” said Dutta.  

According to a corporation source, the Trinamul-led board of the corporation wants a greater role in the day-to-day running of the school.

Asked about the precarious state of the building, Rajesh Chirimar, mayoral council member in charge of mass education said: “The contractor left the work midway. I am told that the work was estimated to cost Rs 70 lakh. But the principal could not explain where she expected the funds to come from.” 

He said his immediate concern was to preempt an accident. “I will ask our civic engineers to put some safeguards in place and then assess how much work is left. We can work out the cost thereafter.”