| Biswo |
Posted
on 20-May-01 07:39 PM
Even before it became political issue, the corrupt practice of
extorting exorbitant fee from students in private school was
something I was also unsatisfied with.
Unlike what we think, the fee charged in a school is not only
about the matter of competition and trade. People don't want to
take their kids to other schools as long as it is possible,
and this is exactly the point why private schools are able to
extort money the way they want.
A friend of mine once sent his two daughters in one reputed
private school of KTM. He told me that the school charged him
in the subjects like tution fee,computer fee.., bla bla. It was
interesting to note the computer fee. Doesn't computer come
with tution? Should they ask for chair fee, desk fee tomorrow?
There was even a horse riding fee, and all the horse riding
the kids were getting was once a month.He always wondered
where was ceiling? Changing the schools of kids is not always
that easy. Especially not in the middle of the academic year.
The government never regulated the private schools. Private
schools more than any other schools competed with the malpractice
of getting one's student's name in SLC board list.I have heard
a rumour that all the apparitchik of education ministry have
shares in some private schools (I don't know if this is true).
Point is: school is a serious thing, but it was not taken
seriously. It was not regulated. Such anarchy had to be met with
some resistance one day, either from middle class parents, or
from students. Sadly, they were met with a myopic student
wing of a rebel force.
There should be some kind of cost to fee ratio. There should be
some kind of regulation regarding the increase in fee. The fee
shouldn't be increased with the whim of one principal. The
fee increase should be justified before the parent's organization
(effectively a sanchaalak samiti of sarkaari school). It is
not just a free competition and a business. It is about legal
business, and rational price also.
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