Parents face rising costs as schools tie up with coaching institutes, ETEducation
Hyderabad: Parents already grappling with steep and unchecked fee hikes are facing an added financial burden, as many schools in the city and across the state have entered into tie-ups with coaching institutes to offer preparation for competitive examinations such as JEE, NEET and the Civil Services.
In most schools, fees for these courses begin at around 30,000 and are mostly introduced from class 8. While similar programmes are also offered to students in upper primary and primary classes, the charges for these are comparatively lower.
“My son’s school offered Civils coaching right from class 8. I paid 30,000 per year, as it is taught by faculty from a corporate institute,” said Sowjanya K, whose son is in class 10 at a school in Habsiguda.
She said that, except for providing study material, the classes are hardly of any use. “We had to pay an additional fee, which is about 35% of the school fee, for this coaching because of peer pressure. It would have been better if schools did not enter into such tie-ups,” the parent added.
A few parents pointed out that, just like the school fee, the coaching fee is also hiked every year without any value addition.
“When my child’s school communicated about coaching classes for JEE and NEET through a Kota-based institute, I noticed a strange pattern. The fee increased by 3,000 for every class. For class 10, they charged about 50,000 in the name of coaching,” said Sree Lakshmi, a parent.
She said that many children were hardly learning anything, as they had just one class after school hours on working days.
The trend is not limited to top schools, as even budget schools are offering such classes with the help of various publishers that supply coaching and study materials for Olympiads and foundation courses.
As per the management, along with providing study material for JEE or NEET, they also provide teacher training and question papers to conduct these classes, which in turn helps them charge about 15,000 for the material.
The Telangana Education Commission (TEC) confirmed that it has received several complaints on this issue from both parents and students.
“The issue was brought to our notice. This is illegal. No school or college can do this. A college or coaching institute cannot go to a school and charge money in the name of a coaching or foundation course. This has turned into a business model and is nothing but the commercialisation of education,” said PL Vishweswar Rao, member, TEC, adding that they are working to resolve the issue.
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