Hyderabad: Schools set up shops on premises, fleece parents

HYDERABAD: Despite the state government and CBSE warning schools against selling books at higher prices on school premises, many schools in the city continue to fleece parents by setting up shops in the respective schools to sell books, uniforms, and other stationery items.
Parents allege that books are being sold with a 200-300 per cent margin by the school management and that schools are not giving them an option to buy books outside.“Schools are supposed to give names of three vendors. Instead, they are asking us to buy books from the premises itself,” said V Uma, whose son is studying in class 8 in a school affiliated to the state board.
They alleged that schools are charging more money just by adding their logo to the products which are easily available in the market for a lesser price. They said that the board should immediately take action against the erring schools.
“Schools are not revealing the publishers' name. Instead, they are forcing parents to buy books from the school itself. Left with no option, we are shelling out double the amount just to buy the books,” said M Raghuram, whose children are studying in Class 4 and Class 8.
They said that most of the schools are selling uniforms, socks, colour pencils among other items on the school premises itself. “The quality of uniforms and socks are so bad that we need to buy them every year. Instead, they should just let us buy uniforms from outside,” said Suresh G, a parent, adding that school managements should not be allowed to change students’ uniform frequently.
Teachers too voiced similar opinions and said that schools are forcing parents to unnecessarily buy more than the required number of books from the premises. “The books set even for a kindergarten student is costing no less than Rs 6,000. As per the state rules, the student is supposed to carry only four books,” said Shabir Ali, president, Telangana Private Teachers Forum.
In 2017, the department of school education (DSE) had issued a government order (GO) listing the guidelines to be followed for reducing the load of school bag in primary, upper primary, and high schools. As per the GO, the school bag of a Class 10 student should not be heavier than 5kg.