Schools give details of revised fee structure

CHENNAI: At the entrance to the Everwin Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Kolathur, students and their parents are greeted by a large 5ft X 10 ft board. It explains in detail the fee recommended by the Justice Raviraja Pandian fee committee. It also details how much the school spends per child every year. The school is an exception. Several others that don't agree with the structure recommended bythe committee are hesitant to share the details with parents. "Along withdetails of how much we had demanded from the fee committee we have put up on theboard a break-up of our costs, including teachers' salaries, stationary andbuilding costs on the board. We have also mentioned that we don't agree with therecommended school fees," said correspondent and principal K Purushottaman. Hesaid most parents had appreciated the move. At a school in Purasawalkam, parentshad to lobby hard before the recommended fee structure was put up on the noticeboard. "However, there was no break-up of the extra amount being collected fromus. After a group of parents gathered to protest last week, the school agreed togive us a detailed account," said G Ramalingam, a parent." Theschool is charging almost 100-200% more than the actual fee towards books,stationery and travel expenses. While the fee specified by the committee for LKGis Rs 7,000, we have been asked to pay almost Rs 12,000 extra towards theseexpenses," he said. The fee specifications are on a government website but veryfew schools have displayed it on their websites. Alpha group of institutions CEOAlfred Devaprasad said this was because most schools were unhappy with therecommended structure. "Many schools are planning to appeal against it. Even innormal circumstances, schools don't have a practice of putting up details offees on their websites," he said.