Education: Rising Fee and Changing System

/ Priyankaspen

Rising Fee and Changing Education System

This is the time where everyone is either worried about their appraisal based on their previous year’s performance or tensed about paying the hefty amount of fee for their little ones.

Education is the basic right of every child, Education molds a child’s development and prepares him to build his future with best practices. Education is a basic need for the core development of a country, but with the rising fee structure and cutthroat competitive scenario all around, how much is too much? How far can we take the burden of the unlevied fee structure, which leaves a parent distressed and all the financial planning goes down the drain in one shot?

I completed my post-graduation in Management in 2008 paying 1 lac 75 thousand and one weeks\ back I paid 1.25 Lac for my five-year-old daughter’s yearly school fee for first grade. It is a CBSE school with all the facilities, but when the new fee structure circular came in, I somehow felt a crunch on paying a lac rupee for first grade. 

It was a matter of concern for many parents, we group discussed and went to school asking for the reason for such a hike in fee, the reasons given to us were:

  1. Air-conditioned classroom
  2. International level curriculum
  3. Extracurricular activities
  4. Professional teachers
  5. Parent workshops

Apart from the first reason, I feel we have studied in a much better environment in yesteryears when education was a serious business and not a Money-Making Hub, today the emphasis is more about each school trying to outdo each other by adding more and more amenities.

In our times the best school was the school which used to win the maximum trophies in sports and academics but nowadays it’s about the amount of fees the school charges, even as parents we have been programmed to think that the more the fees we are paying the more our child will learn. Education is the basic right of a child, but it has been commercialized to such an extent that both the parents and children are under immense pressure to perform.

The outlook of the society is such that if we send our child to a state board school we are looked down upon as someone who can’t afford to give their children even a basic CBSE education. I am not saying that only bad has happened because of the commercialization of schools, no doubt some good things have also happened, kids are given individual attention, they are provided the best of amenities and luxuries but my point is we turned out to be fine even without all these things.

My husband was amused to see the discount scheme offered by the school if we would have paid the entire fees upfront, it was like a pricing policy which the corporates use to entice the customer to pay in advance. 

Back in our days either the school was government sponsored or run by Christian missionaries so either way making money was not their objective, the teachers were more passionate about teaching and the methodology was simple but with the advancement in technology the teachers have become more professional and the methods more complicated. 

I appreciate the change in the methodology of the educational system but we are still beating around the bush, I have always believed that kids should be made life ready, they should be observed, analyzed and schools should be able to identify the talent in the child and should work upon making the child the best in what he or she is instead to just focusing on academics. Then if they charge lacs of rupees a year as fees, I would be more than obliged to give as I know my child is getting something very valuable and priceless in return.

Although I have no option because the fee structure is almost the same everywhere. I somehow can’t get my mind over the fact that I am paying such a huge amount as fees to just ensure that my child studies in one of the best school in the city. As a parent, I want to give my child the best in my capacity, like all the other parents but the question crosses my mind every time IS IT WORTH IT? and till this day the answer has only been negative. 

P.S: Also published on Different Truths in my weekly column.

 

Much love and gratitude

Priyanka 

#VirtualSiyahi

28 thoughts on “Education: Rising Fee and Changing System”

  2. Hi, Priyanka. A very nice topic. After paying a huge amount, I am still not satisfied with the education system. Yes, there is a lot of difference in the fees structure as well as the system which emphasises on academics only.
    Poor education system! We even don’t feel safe while sending them to school, the load of school bags, the pressure of marks. It’s the children who are suffering. They are just in primary classes and have lost interest in studies. Today education is looked upon as business, Almost all schools have the same fee structure, same teaching methods so we parents consider the school with a good name and good results best for our children.

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    • Exactly, even with the cctv and high advanced security system our kids are not safe, do you remember Ryan International School case? And apart from all this my daughter’s curriculum includes Robotics, computers in first grade..
      It is indeed the need of the hour to start early and make your kid life ready but when school tries to justify the fee cost with the subject offerings the results goes down the drain as it somehow makes your kid jack of all trades but master of none.

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  3. This is so true. Although I’m just a teenager and I wouldn’t know much. But no matter which board the most important things are not taught. For example, how to deal with failure, how to deal with life itself,etc. I still don’t know if I’m wrong or right about this. But this is just my opinion I guess 😅

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  4. Priyankaji we have been through this dilemma a few years back… but we strongly opted for state board… today my elder kid is in 9th and the younger one in 3rd… we plan to stop the youngers school once he clears the 5th std… we plan to homeschool him… not that we cannot afford the fees but it’s not worth spending this much just on amenities and not the quality of education… just shared our thoughts… people can disagree…

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    • I completely agree with you, reason being the same, me and my husband also think about home schooling at times but it is a big responsibilty and needs a very much thoughtful decision. The way kids are shaping up even after paying such hefty amount of money with this present trend of education I feel more and more parents will be opting for home schooling in near future.

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  8. Important topic Priyanka…
    that’s right.. I wonder when we were in school… the so called extra curricular, workshops came within the standard fee..
    But now they are just splitting fees for everything to every where…

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