STOP UNREASONABLE & ARBITRARY SCHOOL FEE HIKE

The Principal, Mr Manit Jain , Mr S C Jain

The Heritage School,
Gurgaon

Dear Dr. Mahesh Prasad,

The Parents of children studying in The Heritage School have been very disturbed over the issue of arbitrary increase in the school fee announced recently by the school management. The parents have met in the last few days and have discussed the matter with all sincerity and seriousness.

It is felt that the proposed fee hike is unreasonable and needs to be looked into taking following into consideration:

Advisory issued by the District administration to school managements:

Schools to defer the increase of fees and collection of arrear upto 30th April'2009.

Schools to invite all parents for complete discussion with facts and figures transparently.

Schools to submit Form 6 and display their last audited balance sheet for parents to have understanding of their financial health.

Few Other Facts and concerns:

The school fee in 2004 was Rs.10000 approx. per quarter and in the present year is Rs.24000 approx per quarter which translates into an increase of 240%.

School has not only increased the fees by almost 240% but has also increased the Students: Teacher ratio from 1:20 to 1:30+ which effectively translates into 360%+ increase in revenue for the school in last 4years.

The salary hike of teachers is for all schools irrespective of their fee being Rs1000/- or Rs10000/- p.m. across the country but no where the hike is so steep.

Delhi High Court ruling and Delhi Govt. guidelines to restrict the increase in fee by not more than Rs500/- per month & arrears of not more than Rs 4500/-.

Even Schools like Vasant Valley which have better student teacher class room ratio than Heritage have only increased the fee by Rs. 500/- per month and arrears of Rs. 4500/- in all. The same is true for most other prominent schools in NCR.

The increase of Rs.1500/- p.m for 1600 students translates to Rs. 24,00,000/- per month. Not taking into account the fresh admissions.

For 175 teachers this increase translates to Rs. 13,714/- per month per teacher irrespective of their grades.

The average increase in salary of teachers over the old pay scale is only 30 % approx and not 70% as stated in the circular.

Additional fee is charged for sports & Music by school which is Rs800/- to 1000/- per month. Which never gets accounted for?

While other schools are charging Rs750 per month for the bus heritage charges Rs1500 per month and last time the school management had increased the bus fee on account of increase in diesel cost which has now come down substantially.

The Bus fee in the last four years has also been increased from approx from Rs1900 per quarter to Rs4500 per quarter.

What we want?

1. Total transparency, sharing of data and roll back of fees in line with district administration guidelines till further decision and solution is arrived.

2. School needs to be more transparent about the actual regular teacher (excluding adhoc) and the number of students to arrive at the actual incidence of 6th pay commission,

3. The ratio of 1:9 teachers - student appears to be too good to be true. The actual number of students each section are average 30.

4. The Increase in maintenance & development Charges is also unwarranted as the development has already been done and the cost of new wings being added for various other reasons should not be recovered from the parents. It should be from internal accruals or by way of investments from the trust.

5. Considering the poor market condition and disturbed time ahead, it is requested that School meet part of expenses from its internal accrual and not pass on 100% to parents.

6. The bye laws, provisions or directives of CBSE for affiliation, Haryana School Act Education Act 1995 & DC & SDM Gurgaon are adhered to.