To the dismay of the guardians who were already hit hard by too expensive education, a meeting of the school fee determination committee at the Kathmandu District Education Office (DEO) on Sunday took the 'disturbing' decision.
Though the fees were increased without announcement under several headers in the monthly service charge, this time the private schools have officially increased the fees after three years. District Education Officer Bal Krishna Ranjit and PABSON Kathmandu Chairperson Thachin Gurung were among those present at the meeting where the decision was taken.
After the hike, "A" grade schools can charge up to Rs 3,111 for secondary level and "B" grade schools can charge up to Rs 2,592 per month. Likewise, schools categorized in "C" grade can charge up to Rs 2,074 per month for class nine and 10. Though the apparent fee structure is not that shocking, the schools often charge hidden fees to students under several headers, guardians said.
"The increased fees are ceilings for the schools and they cannot charge more than the committee-aproved rates," said Bechan Kapad, a member of the committee and the Kathmandu chapter chairperson of the Guardian's Association of Nepal. "However, in the absence of effective monitoring, the schools' monopoly will prevail leaving the guardians helpless," he added.
No wonder, the schools collect much more in the form of admission fees and several others 'service charges' rather than purely from tuition fees, thus far exceeding the publicized ceiling.
Meanwhile, student unions have criticized the government authorities for allowing the hike. The All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary (ANNISUR) had initially submitted a memorandum to the Department of Education calling for halt to any hike this year. A union leader has claimed that his organization has already identified around a dozen private schools that have already imposed 50 percent hike for the coming session.
"We will not hesitate to enforce indefinite strike if the fee hike decision is not withdrawn soon," said Lal Bahadur Tamang, treasurer of the Maoist-affiliated union.
Interestingly, unlike what they had said earlier, both PABSON and NPABSON are now saying that the fee hike has little to do with the teachers' pay increment. According to them, schools will pay their teachers as per the schools' capacities and category. However, the schools' stance goes against the Directive of the Department of Education that directs private sector to pay the teachers salaries and benefits on par with the government school teachers.
Private teachers feel that they are among the most exploited lot as the regular fee hike and good profit of the schools hardly reflect on the teachers' pay and perks, according to Hom Kumar Thapa, president of Nepal School Teachers' Union. "Our issue is not addressed by the schools. The private sector never thinks that teachers deserve handsome salaries although they collect hefty fees from students," he stressed.
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