Priyanka critiques the money-making education system that forces parents to pay hefty fees for the best education for their little child. A Different Truths exclusive.  

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 children.

Education is the basic right of every child. Education moulds 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 postgraduation in Management, in 2008, paying 1 lakh 75 thousand and one week back I paid 1.25 lakh 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 lakh rupee plus 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

I feel we have studied in a much better environment in yesteryears when education was a serious business and not a money-making hub.

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 commercialised to such an extent that both 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 commercialisation 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 had 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.

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, analysed 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 lakhs 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.

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 schools in the city.

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 schools 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.

Photos from the Internet