'Hit a raw nerve,' says Gurugram man on exorbitant school fee of Class 3 son

Exorbitantly high school fees has been a matter of concern for many a parents, especially after the coronavirus pandemic. Recently, a real estate consultant from Gurugram took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his grouse about the issue.

Udit Bhandari, a real estate consultant from Gurugram, said that his son's school fees has been compounding at 10 per cent per annum. Bhandari added that the school is not interested in explaining the rationale behind the hike in his son's school fees.

Bhandari said in his post: "My son's school fees have been consistently componding at 10 per cent/annum. The school does not even bother to explain the hike and the higher fee simply appears on the payment app! When parents protested, they said please look for another school for your kids!"

Going ahead, the real estate consultant said that he pays Rs 30,000 per month as his son's school fees, who studies in Class 3. This, Bhandari said, was excluding the charges for bus facility that is offered by many schools. He further explained that if his son's school fees continues to compound at 10 per cent, it would reach around Rs 9 lakh per annum when his son is in class 12. 

"This post has surely hit a raw nerve! My son is in Grade 3 and it's a reputed CBSE school in Gurugram. School fees is Rs 30,000/month including meals (excluding bus). If this continues to compound at 10 per cent, it would be nearly Rs 9,00,000 per annum when he's in 12th," he concluded. 

Read Udit Bhandari's full post here

What did netizens have to say?

Bhandari's grievance about high school fees augured well with netizens as some of them even made a case for price cap on fees charged by private schools. "The government should intervene and add a cap on private school fees. But it seems I'm expecting too much from the government," a user said. 

"It's a big issue which needs to be addressed on a serious note," a user said. "Government should intervene and improve the quality of government schools so that parents aren't forced to send their kids to private schools. After all, government teachers are paid much more than private school teachers. So, it's only fair to expect higher outcomes," another user noted. 

A user named Manoj Arora listed some reasons as to why private schools charge such high fees."I see the following reasons for extraordinarily high fees charged by private schools in India: Pvt schools aren't regulated; They are big businesses, running for profits; There is a massive demand supply gap; Parents have only 1 kid in most cases, and they want to give their best; Govt schools are actually pathetic; Homeschooling concept hasn't yet caught up in India."

Another parent said that this is the case with every school as they provide books and stationery with inflated MRP. The parent also said that schools also change uniforms and shoes very frequently so nobody can use the old ones. 

"You can't object to anything. 10 per cent hike every year, books with inflated MRP they even provide stationery and you can't buy it from outside. They change dress, shoes every year so nobody can use their old one," the parent said.