Safety guidelines: Schools set to hike fee from December

Get ready to pay more for your child’s school education. Schools in Bengaluru are set to increase the fees from December onwards, citing the expenditure on mandatory measures to make their premises safer for children.

A number of school heads under various associations on Monday filed objections to the draft fees proposed by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
The measures were issued by the police in the wake of several cases of child sexual abuse in the City’s schools.

“Many of our schools are budget schools which charge fees of Rs 500-600 a month. We have, therefore, conveyed to the government the inevitability to collect a nominal fee from each student to implement these measures. Many parents have in fact been quite understanding and are willing to pay,” said D Shashi Kumar, organising secretary, Karnataka State Private School Managements’ Federation (KSPSMF).

In a statement, the KSPSMF pointed out that even the DPI had asked for funds from the government for implementing the same safety guidelines in state-run and aided schools. Similarly, unaided schools need funds, the statement said.

The Federation also asked the DPI to start registering schools as English-medium institutions following the recent Supreme Court order that threw out Karnataka’s language policy on imparting primary education compulsorily in Kannada medium. “The principal secretary of primary and secondary education promised us that this issue (language policy) will be conveyed to the government and a meeting will be held shortly,” Kumar said.