Dirty Money: Chennai school's new discriminatory fee structure is 'rotten' to the core

The lessons we learn in school are supposed to stay with us forever but what if the message links knowledge with the money you have in the bank; what if the lessons reek of discrimination instead of equal opportunity; what if the lessons learnt are all the wrong ones. A circular issued by the Bala Vidya Mandir school management in Chennai essentially told parents – a government fixed fee will get your child just four hours of school and bare minimum facilities, but if you are willing to double that amount expect a lot more goodies such as canteen food, bus/van services, a chance to be on the school team etc. In other words, parents have a choice of  either paying the state-determined fee that will permanently give you a place among the ‘cattle class’ of students or accepting a higher fee and allowing their children a “holistic learning experience.” On 25 May, the CBSE-affiliated school set in upscale Adyar, in a circular informed the parents that here on there will be two radically fee structures — the higher fee structure will include all extra-curricular activities and the other which includes only 4.5 hours of classroom studies.  A scanned copy of the letter, which is being shared on social media, lists 59 activities including basic facilities like medical attention, using the canteen, participation in programmes that take care of the children’s mental health and sport activities. Not only that, if you opt for the lesser fee structure, you can not avail library facilities, training for protection against sexual harassment, annual day and annual excursion trips of the school. Firstpost spoke to a few parents who have sent their children to BVM, and they were all horrified by the new fee structure, some even terming it as extortion in exchange of a brighter future of their children. “We either pay Rs 69,000 per annum so that our children will get a holistic education or our kids will only get 4 hours of  class everyday,”  a parent who did not want to be named told Firstpost. According to the parents, the school has been hiking the fee slowly and steadily since 2009. In 2009, fees for a senior student (Class 8 - Class 12) was Rs 32,000 per annum which has gone up to 60,000 per annum in 2015. The fee is 67 percent more than recommended by state appointed fee determination committee. “How can you even think of something that will divide children on the basis of their fees? Only this new management can think in this rotten way,” said V Suresh, coordinator of the parents’ group. [caption id=“attachment_2277580” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “] Image from the school’s website.[/caption] According to parents, whose children are in Class 11-12, they enrolled their children in a programme called MERITUS. It is an initiative taken by the school to train students for IIT and other premier engineering colleges so that they don’t have to look for outside coaching. “If you want your child to be part of MERITUS, they charge Rs 90,000 for a year, which I paid. But then I realised it is not going anywhere. My son had to go to another coaching class. So I decided to pull him out of the course. That’s when they told me that I will have to pay 1,80,000 upfront if I wanted my son to discontinue with MERITUS. This is nothing but loot,” a father of Class 11 student said on condition of anonymity. Nearly 400 parents are protesting against the school’s fee structure and the fee determination committee has ordered a probe into the matter. In fact, even teachers are opposing the new fee structure and some of them have reportedly been sacked as a result. Parents said that fee hike was not even that big a problem till the school decreed that the fee must be paid through online payment. According to Karthika (name changed), who has a daughter in Class 4, making online payments was a problem for some parents because they were not too comfortable with the mode. But the school would not accept the fee otherwise. “This was unheard of.” Sarita Lal, a mother of two and a Madras High Court lawyer, can’t forget 30 March when authorities of Bala Vidya Mandir denied entry to her son in the class (a Class 12 student) and made him stand outside like a “criminal.” The school authorities said that the boy had not paid his school fee and he was two days late! “A few of us have trouble and aren’t that tech-savvy. Apart from that, the website has glitches and when we try to pay it doesn’t go through easily. But the authorities overlook all of this. I have two sons and have been associated with Bala Vidya Mandir has been for over 14 years now. First of all, I am never late in paying fees. Secondly, I was just two days late and they threw my son out of the class as if he was a criminal of some sort,” says a furious Sarita. Apart from her son, there were three other kids who were thrown out of their classes due to the same reason. “One of the girls was unable to pay the fee because her father was being operated in Dubai. They did not care. That’s when we decided to take it to the management,” Sarita adds. The parents first approached the principal Srinivas Raghavan and the CEO SS Nathan for help. Both of them said that their hands were tied by the school management and they could not do anything to help them. After a long wait, a few parents met with the school management trustee Ramanna Prasad. The parents equivocally asserted that Ramanna Prasad was not only rude but also condescending. “When one of the parents got emotional while speaking to him, Prasad said, ‘Keep your volume low and start doing meditation.’ We are parents and we leave our children in their hands for their better future. If this is what is happening at BVM, I don’t know which school can you trust,” said a harrowed father of a Class 8 student. Firstpost spoke to four parents out of which three requested anonymity. Parents and teachers blamed it on the current management which has been threatening those who reach out to the media against the school. Feeling helpless, a group of parents approached the Singaravelan Private School Fees Determination Committee and in a petition asked them to look into the matter. On 18 May, the committee asked the school to refund excessive fees for three consecutive years to the parents. “After the committee asked them to refund the excess money and submit a report regarding it on 9 June, the circular was issued to pre-empt this. It is like the management wanted to create an alibi,” said Suresh. The school was supposed to reopen after summer vacation on 4 June but latest reports quoted teachers and parents as saying that the school management did not allow that to happen. Following the uproar, the Tamil Nadu Private Schools Fee Determination Committee took suo motu congnisance of the matter and directed the Joint Secretary of Education to look into the matter. The situation snowballed into another major controversy after the CEO of BVM SS Nathan and the teaching staff showed solidarity with the parents and protested against the management’s high-handedness. According to the parents, the CEO, the principal and the teaching staff were unfazed by the management and assured the parents that they would not let anything affect the childrens’ future. But the show of solidarity came with a price. Reports suggested that the CEO was sacked for standing up for the protesting parents. Despite several attempts made by Firstpost, authorities from BVM (principal and CEO) or any body from the school management remained unreachable and unavailable for a comment.