'No' to fee cut; budget school managements to meet education minister today

HYDERABAD: The functionaries of the Telangana Recognised Schools Management Association (TRSMA) representing private schools are meeting Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy on Wednesday in view of reopening of schools from July 1, as announced by the state government last week.

The association does not agree to the government's suggestion to further lower tuition and other fees. There exists a financial crisis. In order to sustain the operations, parents of all students in private budget schools should be mandated to pay the fee dues pending since March last year, it stresses.

"Hardly 30-40 per cent of the parents have paid the fees due to the abrupt closures. This has made it difficult for most schools to continue with their operations. Lowering the fees any further is not acceptable to us. Schools now conduct both offline and online classes. There will be added expenditure by way of bills, rents and sanitization," it said.

It added that no school has increased the fees in the past two years. "If the fees are reduced, we will not be able to pay salary to teachers and other staff," said Sadulla Madhusudhan, TRSMA general secretary.

Another issue being taken up with the education minister is on preparation of an academic calendar for the new session. This was not done the previous academic year. The association also wants attendance made mandatory and to give 30 per cent weightage to attendance in the final results for students.