HPS Fee Row: Govt Orders Report
The minister added the government would consult school societies and officials before taking a decision, and maintained that a fair outcome would be reached after due review: Reports
HYDERABAD: Parents of students from the Begumpet and Ramanthapur branches of the Hyderabad Public School (HPS) met with IT minister D. Sridhar Babu, the fee regulation committee chairman, to protest what they described as an arbitrary 141 per cent fee increase across four academic years. That amounts to a jump that has pushed annual fees from ₹83,630 in 2021-22 to ₹2,01,628 for 2025, they said.
After meeting the delegation, Sridhar Babu said the government regulation committee was reviewing complaints along with the education department. He instructed school education commissioner Dr Naveen Nicholas to examine the issues and file a report.
The minister added the government would consult school societies and officials before taking a decision, and maintained that a fair outcome would be reached after due review.
The parents told the minister that repeated that the HPS management had introduced annual fee hikes without sharing expenditure details or audited accounts. Several parents said classroom standards and facilities had not changed in proportion to the rising costs, and questioned why fees continued to climb despite what they described as stagnant outcomes.
Concerns were also raised about the functioning of the Parent-Teacher Association. Parents alleged that individuals with no direct link to the school were included in the PTA, and claimed that this misrepresented parental consent in communications with the government and the CBSE board.
The delegation pressed for a full inquiry into the school’s management practices and sought a state-wide fee regulation board. They proposed that fee revisions be limited to 8 to 10 per cent once every three years, linked to the consumer price index, to prevent sudden financial shocks to families.