Steel City: Pvt schools under probe for fee hike minus green flag

JAMSHEDPUR: Several top private schools in Jamshedpur have come under scanner of East Singhbhum (Jamshedpur) district education department for allegedly hiking their annual fee of entry-level classes (nursery and lower kindergarten ) by more than 10% without the mandatory prior approval from district fee fixation committee as required by law.

“We have sought details of fee structure issued for this year from about a dozen private schools after it came to our notice that they allegedly hiked their annual fee by more than 10% in 2021 in comparison to 2020. As per state government circular, private schools can hike the fees by 10% every three years on their own. But, for hiking the fees by more than 10%, they ought to have prior approval from district fee-fixation committee headed by the district deputy commissioner (DC) concerned. In the instant case, no such approval was taken by any of the schools,” Bineet Kumar, Jamshedpur district superintendent of education (DSE), said officials said on Monday.

Kumar further said legal action would be taken against school managements concerned once they get the reports from them and the department completes probe into the matter.

As per available information, about a dozen top schools have hiked their annual fee at nursery level for 2021 by ₹980 to ₹2794. On the other hand, JH Tarapore, Hill Top School, Beldih Church School, Narbheram Hansraj English School and Motilal Nehru Public School have not made any changes in their fee structure.

The matter came to the fore during results of lottery for admissions in nursery and LKG classes in the said schools on Saturday. Some elite schools didn’t mention the fee structure, but conveyed the same to guardians of the selected kids verbally, while some schools uploaded it on their websites.

As per the new fee structure, DAV Public School (Bistupur) now has the highest fee at the entry level, with an annual fee of ₹62, 330, of which ₹43, 970 will have to be paid at the time of admission. The quarterly tuition fee of ₹6,120 will have to be paid every three months. Last year, Sacred Heart Convent had the highest fee at ₹60, 000.

“DAV School does not do anything out of the law. The fee hike will not be more than 10% under any circumstances, as per government circular,” Pragya Singh, DAV principal, who was out of the city, said over phone Monday evening.

Meanwhile, DBMS English School has hiked its fee to ₹19,375 in 2021 from ₹16, 581 in 2020, DBMS Kadma has hiked the fee to ₹13, 650 this year from ₹12, 545 last year, Dayanand Public School to ₹14, 260 this year from ₹13,240 last year, Kerala Public School (Kadma) to ₹14,100 this year from ₹12,000 last year and Chinmaya South Park has hiked its fee to ₹28,640 this year from ₹26,000 last year.

“Schools are allowed to hike fee by 10% every two years. They can’t hike it by over 10% and none of the schools under our association has done it. Many schools have not hiked fees at all,” Baily Bodhanwala, president, Jamshedpur Unaided Schools’ Association (JUSA), said.