TN: Mixed reactions to revised school fee list

CHENNAI: Among school managements, the revised fee structure announced across the State on Tuesday elicited a mixed response, with some hailing it, and others wailing over it. But among educationists, there is clear concurrence in denouncing the committee’s formation and report, as its mere existence has legitimised the commodification of education in the State.The revised fee list was computed by the Private Schools Fee Fixation Committee, instituted during the previous DMK regime in December 2009. This committee was formed in response to protests from parents seeking government intervention in regulating the fee charged by private schools. Five months later, the committee, under the leadership of Justice Govindarajan, had announced its fee structure for 10,934 schools, among which 6,400 schools had gone to the Madras High Court seeking revision. Consultations among these protesting schools were held from November 2010 under the leadership of the new committee head, Justice K Raviraja Pandian, the final list of which was announced partly on Tuesday across the State.While the new report has managed to partly assuage several protesting schools, senior academicians and educationists in the city carry a strong grouse against the fee fixation committee itself, despite it reducing the fee burden for some parents. “The committee’s report may have recommended a lower fee than usual for private schools, but this government-formed committee is only distracting the people from a serious issue: of free and quality education which has to be provided by the government,” said educationist Rajagopalan, speaking to City Express.Reiterating a similar sentiment, educationist Shivakumar said education should not become a business. But the government treated it as one, which is a disturbing trend. The list has not touched upon hidden costs of the schools, like the money charged for ID card issuance, van and notebooks which have to be compulsorily bought by students,” he said.The demand for the government to provide free and quality education was on the rise in the State, to counter which the State government formed a committee to only look into the fees charged by private institutions. The State government should ideally be providing this education free of cost, rather than curbing private schools regarding this issue, said Prof Kalvimani, senior educationist.