Heads of private schools across the State, who received the report of the revised fee structures from their respective Chief Educational Officers (CEOs) on Tuesday, said they were disappointed with the new fee amounts.
A section of correspondents said they were contemplating moving the Madras High Court, while another said they might appeal to the Chief Minister.
The reports released by the Private Schools Fee Determination Committee headed by former Madras High Court judge K. Raviraja Pandian suggested a nominal increase from the amounts determined by the Committee earlier, when former Madras High Court judge K. Govindarajan chaired it.
M. Senthilnathan of Tagore Vidyalaya, Madurai, who represents the Private Schools Correspondents' Confederation, said: “We are likely to appeal at the High Court as individual schools against this Committee's order.” The formula used by the Committee was not made known and several expenses incurred by the schools had not been taken into account, he added.
In the case of some schools such as Lakshmi Nursery School, Ariyamangalam, the revised fee was lesser than that prescribed earlier. Correspondent of the school R. Subramanian said that the fee structure given earlier was Rs. 2,920 for class IV and Rs. 3,320 for class V. “Now, they have said we should collect just Rs. 2,650 for class IV and V. The new fee structure is not justified,” he said.
The management representatives of schools in Coimbatore said they would convene a meeting and decide on the next course of action. They noted that the Committee had clubbed the kindergarten sections, classes I to V, classes VI to VIII, IX and X and classes XI and XII in groups and determined the fee by calculating the average fee per class.
Erode District Private School Managements Federation president D. Chandrasekaran said that on an average, the fee had been increased by about 15 per cent. “It will be very difficult to run the schools with this fee structure,” he said.
Schools in Erode that were earlier charging Rs. 16,000 to Rs. 32,000 for Plus-Two have been asked to charge between Rs. 12,000 and Rs. 17,000 henceforth. P. Kottravel, correspondent of Kongu Matriculation School in Solangapalayam said: “With this fee, we will be able to meet only the expenses on teachers' salaries. We will not be able to run the school.”
Reports pending
Not all the schools, of the nearly 6,400 that sought revision, received reports of their revised structure on Tuesday. Some school heads and correspondents in districts, including Madurai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore and Chennai were asked to get in touch with the CEOs' offices in the next few days to collect the details.
In Chennai, for instance, only 291 schools of the 533 that had appealed for revision received their revised structure. In Krishnagiri, only 104 schools of the 141 schools that sought revision received the reports.
Special Officer in the Private Schools Fee Determination Committee A. Thirugnanasambandam said the exercise had been completed. “The reports of a few schools are pending and will be handed over tomorrow [Wednesday]. We will also hand over a CD with the details for all the schools to the Directorate of School Education, which will publish it on the official websites,” he said.
Responding to schools' unhappiness, he said the revised fee was calculated using the details provided by the schools on various factors, including the number of teachers, student strength, infrastructure, and teacher-student ratio.
On enforcement of the revised fee structure, he said the Committee's role was over and it was the School Education Department that had to ensure that the new fee structure is implemented.
Parents' speak
While school managements are an anxious lot, parents expressed satisfaction over the revised fee structure.
P. Vanathi, a parent in Periya Semur, Erode, said that the managements should come forward to implement the government fixed fee as it would enable a large number of students from the lower and middle class families to study in private schools.
M. Mari Muthu, parent of a student going to Our Lady Matriculation School, Chennai, said the emphasis had to be placed on enforcement. “The exercise is being done in haste. Why couldn't have it been planned well and the fees released in public domain well ahead of the reopening dates? The government must at least ensure that the new fee structure is implemented,” he said.
With most schools seeming rather disappointed with the revised fee structure, the information on the new fee structure was not put up on school notice boards.
CEOs burdened?
Distribution of the fee reports to school heads came as additional responsibility to many CEOs, who were involved in getting the textbooks ready for dispatch to various districts.
Krishnagiri CEO G. Murthy said there was no comprehensive report for the reference of the CEO. “The work should have been entrusted to the Inspector of Matriculation Schools,” he said.
Sources in the School Education Department said that some of the educational officers were given the responsibility of ensuring that the content in the textbooks brought out by the Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation was appropriately modified after certain representations of the previous DMK regime's achievements were removed.
