MSPA Blog

Article published in Deccan Chronicle - 25/06/10

A city school has asked 72 students to leave because their parents participated in the anti fee hike movement in the city in the last academic year.
The reason the school gave was that the parents were apparently “tarnishing the school’s image”.

Protesting against this decision, the Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA) held a silent rally in front of the institution, Niraj Public School at Ameerpet on Thursday.

HSPA sources said the association lodged a complaint against the school with the district collector and the district educational officer (DEO) but no action has been taken. The DEO said he has recommended the government to withdraw “no objection certificate” of the school.

June 24: The District Education Officer, Mr Jagannath Reddy, said he has told the government to take action against the school.

“I conducted an inquiry into the complaints lodged by the parents and I wrote to the government recommending cancellation of the school’s NOC. This will also lead to the school’s deaffiliation from CBSE. The government has to take action now,” said the district education officer Mr Jagannath Reddy.

“It is our fundamental right to protest. The school gave Transfer Certificates to students because their parents protested against the exorbitant fees,” said Mr K.V.R. Kumar, secretary, HSPA. Sources say 32 of the 72 students who were given TCs have applied to other schools for admissions.

For the remaining 40 students, the school management has asked their parents to give a bond that they will not participate in any more anti-fee movements to withdraw the TCs.

The school’s principal Mr Geevitesh Reddy was not available for comment and office bearer Mr Rasheed and other school authorities refused to comment.

Article published in The Hindu on13th June ‘10

Hyderabad: The District Education Officer (DEO), Hyderabad has warned the school managements not to collect abnormal fee from students and insist on buying school dress, textbooks and shoes from the school only.

While our case continues to be pending in the High Court and there are no fresh orders, our case is expected to be heard only after the decision on GO MS-91 is given by the High Court. GO MS-91 continues to be in suspension mode, the GO MS-91 case was heard for 6.5 day and has been challenged by 32 schools from AP. Our representation was made in this case through HSPA represented by a senior counsel. The final verdict is expected very soon.

MSPA members had a detailed conversation with Mrs.Usha Reddy about issue of books to children to ensure studies are not affected. MSPA also offered to pay for the books but this request was denied in consultation with the Meridian Management. MSPA continues to work on the larger aspect of year on year fee hike but at the same time does not encourage childrens studies to be disturbed in any form. Parents are therefore requested to proceed with the payment of first term fee only. Mess remains optional so please exercise your choice.

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Fees will be in force for three years
10% increase allowed for development of schools
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CHENNAI: The State government has fixed fees for 10,934 private self-financing schools across Tamil Nadu.

The Private Schools Fee Determination Committee, a statutory panel appointed by the Government, finalised the fee structure after conducting a detailed study of the various issues.

The committee took into consideration the average fees collected from each student, the total number of students and the expenditure incurred by the school, including the salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff and other expenses, such as electricity and telephone charges.

The fees fixed for each individual school will be intimated through the concerned Chief Educational Officer. Details of the fee structure will be posted on the website (www.pallikalvi.in) of the Education Department for the benefit of parents and schools.

K.Govindarajan, Committee Chairperson, addressing newspersons here on Friday, said a format was designed with regard to the fixation of fees and it was forwarded to all the 10,934 schools, of which 10,233 responded.

The fee structure for 10,233 schools was fixed on the basis of income and expenditure of the schools. If the income, collected as fees from students, were more than the expenditure, the schools were asked to reduce them. In schools where the income was less than the expenditure, they were allowed to collect the existing fees. Schools that were not collecting any fees would not be allowed to collect fees. For the 701 schools which had not responded to the format, the committee has fixed fees similar to that of schools in the adjoining areas.

The committee on an average fixed Rs. 11,000 for higher secondary schools, Rs. 9,000 for high schools, Rs. 8,000 for middle schools and Rs. 5,000 for elementary schools in the city. There were higher secondary schools in the city which were collecting around Rs. 35,000 per student. However, in the case of elementary schools in the city, a majority of them were collecting around Rs. 2,000 per student. Shockingly, a residential school in Kadayanallur in Tirunelveli district was collecting Rs. 1.25 lakh per student for elementary classes. As the school showed an expense of Rs. 3,000 per student, the committee fixed the same as the fees. The committee allowed the existing fee structure for schools that were collecting reasonable fees.

Mr.Govindarajan said fees in schools in urban areas were less compared to those in semi-urban areas. Perhaps this might be due to lesser number of students in the latter. The chairperson said the fees fixed by the committee would be in force for three years and no school would be allowed to enhance or revise the fees for the next three years without prior permission of the committee. For the development of schools a 10 per cent increase in expenses would be allowed.

If the committee received any complaint from students or parents that a particular school had been collecting more than the prescribed fee it would make an enquiry. It would recommend penal action against the school if the complaint against it was found to be true.

M Ramya | TNN

Chennai: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed appeals against the Madras high court judgment upholding the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009. The apex court’s order came as a disappointment to the unaided schools, which had counted on the appeal to oppose the proposed fee structure announced by a state-appointed committee formed under the Act. The judgment’s impact on the fee panel’s recommendations are yet to be clarified, but the ruling empowers the state to regulate fees and check profiteering.

    School education minister Thangam Thennarasu informed the assembly about the “sweet news” that the legislation had been upheld and that the special leave petitions by the private schools had been dismissed. “The court has commended the state’s law and said it was valid,” Thennarasu said.

MSPA advices all parents of Meridian to hold the first term fee for the year 2010-11. The case continues to be pending in the High Court and the last direction from the Court was only for the Third Term for 2009-10.

Meridian Management is not issuing books to students where parents are abiding by the Court Order and supporting MSPA. This is one of the pressure tactics being utilized to collect fee from parents. As far as the case is pending for disposal the school should not collect any new fee without the order of the High Court.

Meridian Management should have consider the fact that it has sufficient caution deposit from each parent and so it should not hold back the books to be issued and cause emotional trauma to any of the kids by way of discrimination, which is discouraged by CBSE in any form.

While the case continues to be heard Meridian Management approached the court and requested to pass appropriate orders that would not make day to day running of the school difficult. Keeping this in mind the High Court has issued an interim direction for school to collect the third term fee as per academic year 2008-09. All these payments are subject to adjustment depending on the final hearing in the High Court. MSPA urges all parents to abide by the Courts order and pay up the third term fee as per year 2008-09 by 22nd March (Monday).

An official communication to this effect has also been sent to Meridian Management to read this communication click here

Third term fee details for 2008-09:
Class 1……….Rs.13,300/-
Class 2……….Rs.13,650/-
Class 3……….Rs.14,150/-
Class 4……….Rs.14,800/-
Class 5……….Rs.15,500/-
Class 6……….Rs.15,800/-
Class 7……….Rs.16,500/-
Class 8……….Rs.17,150/-
Class 9……….Rs.17,500/-
Class 10……..Rs.19,150/-
This is only third term fee and does not include mess or transport cost which are optional.

The Hyderabad Schools Parents Association is now federation of several individual school parent associations that have been formed to take a just cause forward collectively, namely the “year-on-year school fee hike” issue. So far individual parent associations of each school have been demanding for justice and have knocked several doors. Being a part of the HSPA enables you to voice your concerns and also ensures that neither you nor your child gets into a confrontation situation with your school.

1. So what is HSPA’s agenda?

Parents for the past 3-4 years have been in a rude shock every year with schools passing on unjustified fee hikes to the tune of 40-240%. Since years schools always had minimal fee hikes to maintain their expenses but now educational bodies under the disguise of quality education and facilities have been hiking fees to meet their commercial aspirations. So much so that today for a medium level school the average monthly fee hovers around Rs.6000/-. Therefore, the agenda of HSPA is to bring in a system to regulate year on year fee hikes and make educational bodies accountable, when they want to ‘hike’ it further. This scenario is not unique to Hyderabad only and there are similar movements of parents in other states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Bengal, Delhi , Rajasthan and more.

2. How can we get this regulatory fee structure operational?

By mandating that schools uphold the order of Government of Andhra Pradesh (GO MS-91) issued on 8^th august 2009.

3. How was this GO issued in the first place?

This GO was the result of a combined effort on the part of parents from several schools who came together under the HSPA umbrella and put forward their grievance and got the government to understand exactly what was happening. The AP Government acted on priority and within 20 days released the GO to curb such unjustified hikes.

4. Will regulation make schools compromise on quality?

The GO has been well conceived, the government will not interfere with fixing of fee structures of school because each school depending on the infrastructure, salaries, maintenance etc has the freedom to decide its fee. The regulation is focused around the oversight on the year on year fee hike. Schools are expected to share their income/expense statement and if justified they can hike the fee. The important aspect here is that school need to justify why they would need to hike the fee and pass-on to parents?

5. How did the schools react to this?

They are unhappy as they are now being held accountable every time they plan to hike up the fees further for similar set-up. They also have to justify the hike towards additional facilities they intend to provide, as cost towards any additional facilities is not covered through Annual Tuition fees, according to CBSE/ State/ ICSE laws. Being commercial minded they are an unhappy lot as their actions will now be questioned. Schools have approached the High Court and are trying their best to get the GO scrapped. So far they have been partially successful to get the GO temporarily suspended for few weeks. In one of the School’s case, High Court has also suggested parents to move school, if it has become unaffordable over a period of time.

6. So what does HSPA plan to do?

The HSPA plans to make a representation using all legal angles to ensure that the Stay Order on the GO is duly vacated. To achieve this HSPA has engaged a senior council to represent itself in the High Court. If required HSPA is ready to take matters to the Supreme Court where several such cases have already come up. The joint case will ensure that court takes this seriously as a social matter rather than issue concerning with just one school and hence can’t dispose off citing movement to another school with lesser fee, as all other schools also go through yearly fee hikes.

7. Why do we need a Senior Council?

There are 7 writ petitions filed in the High Court from various schools like Niraj, Meridian , DPS, Chirec etc who have engaged very senior councils to ensure the GO is scrapped and they can continue to hike fee year on year without being accountable to anyone. In such scenario it becomes very essential that we engage an equally strong council to represent and speak for our concerns in the court.

8. How much will it cost us?

HSPA is expecting an outlay of about Rs. 8 -10 lacs for the legal battle and its other supporting expenses from time to time.

9. How does HSPA plan to raise such amount to fight for the cause?

Each of the School associations collects Rs 500 from the individual parents of their association, towards this legal cause, significantly critical to all parents in AP, against their individual School associations receipts. Using this collection from parents, these school associations pass-on atleast Rs 50,000 to HSPA account for unified legal action. We would require 20 such school associations to reach our 10Lac figure using this model, and we know we don’t have that many in Hyderabad . We are hoping to have around Rs 7 Lac collection from the School Association channel. MSPA have a target of submitting of cheque of Rs 50000 with HSPA, against the HSPA receipt.

Additionally, HSPA or individual school representatives need to reach out additionally to individual school parents and collect Rs 500 each from them. We are hoping to have around Rs 3 Lac collection from this channel. Collection can happen, against the HSPA receipts, using cash, cheque, net-banking fund transfer etc.

10. In what way will we benefit?

The GO once implemented, will ensure that you don’t get a rude shock every time the school hikes its fees. It must be understood we are NOT fighting to ensure NO FEE HIKES. We are fighting for a decent regulation to ensure that both sides benefit for mutually effective running of the school. Parents would not be forced to change school due to the year-on-year hike also.

11. How will it help in the long run?

You and for generations to come tomorrow stand to reap the benefits of a good education with fee hikes commensurate with facilities being provided from time to time by their respective schools. It will ensure quality education will be made available to a large section of the society and at a cost, linked to Consumer Price Index.

12. What have been our achievements so far?

· HSPA has provided a platform to parents to voice their concerns and opinions without the fear of being targeted individually by their specific School Management.

· HSPA has induced the government to issue a GO

· HSPA has ensured that compulsory extras like MEALS & TRANSPORT charges, have been made optional

· Further to our persuasion, the hikes have now come into single digits in lot of schools, but this could also have been done momentarily to avoid unwanted immediate attention of parents on this subject; for parents to get a shock again in future.

13. So how can I join this noble social crusade?

We welcome participation from every parent. Please contact the MSPA Area representatives listed below, near to your residence/ office to extend your support.

In case you do not have the time to spare for active involvement, you can contribute your might by putting forward Rs 500/- or Rs 1000/- or multiples thereof. You can make the payment for legal fees using following channels:

1) Electronic Fund Transfer - Please transfer the amount to the following account:

And send an email to mspa.core@gmail.com with the transaction reference no., parent’s name, child’s name and your mobile no. Please add ‘MSPA Legal Fee Contribution’ as the subject line.

2) Cheque through Post - Please send Cheque on the name of ‘Meridian Schools Parents Association’ to the following address: MSPA, Flat No. 1102, C Block, Aparna Towers, Survey # 20, 21 & 22,Kothaguda, Kondapur, Lane Opp GEM Motors, Hyderabad 500084. Please mention parent’s name, child’s name and your mobile no and “MSPA Legal Fee Contribution’ behind the cheque.

3) Cheque/ Cash personally hand-over to MSPA Area Representatives listed below, near to you to pay by cash.

A receipt will be issued to you right after realizing the cheque or upon the completion of the transfer.

Your contribution will go a long way collectively. For every penny put forward, gives us that much room to legally approach this issue with a no holds barred!

Think of it this way, you could have given Rs 4000 - 5000 towards an extra facility demanded by the school or it could be just one evening of movie & dinner for your family in a restaurant. On the contrary a very meager contribution from you towards this cause ensures that you do not pay through your nose in the future.

Imagine a scenario where your child is in the 1^st standard today and if there is no regulation on fee structure, going by the promised 25% hike every year you will end up paying 5lakh rupees per year by the time the child reaches class IX or Xth! And we are talking about basic education, which is the right of a child of every taxpayer in this country!!

Jaago!!

For Meridian Schools Parent Association (MSPA)

It has been an year since the formal formation of MSPA. So far MSPA, led by its core committee members, was focusing on the Commercialization of Education and Unjustified Year-on-Year Fee Hike that had been passed on to parents regularly. While Meridian School Management has shown some positive signs in their functioning related to making Mess Services optional, accepting fee as per 2008-09 structure and declaring to continue Meridian Madhapur without a fee hike in 2010-11, we still have a long road to cover in these core items, where Meridian Parents and School Management have conflicting thoughts…

For the coming year, besides continuing to focus on these core items, MSPA core committee plans to see MSPA play a much larger role with the school in its holistic development. In 2010, we wish to break the thought that “MSPA works only for the interest of the parents and not the school”. In coming year, MSPA wishes to work closely with the management, Principals and teachers to ensure the quality of education in Meridian sets new standards, by active engagement of MSPA members (Meridian parents) towards fostering the relationship. All of us can see that these things have nothing to do with the Increased Fee charged in the school….

Keeping above in mind, we are proposing the MSPA Annual All Parents meet on Jan 30th 2010 towards covering following:

· Review the progress MSPA has made with the school in 2009

· Review the Legal stand as of now and steps ahead.

· Engagement Approach with School in 2010.

· Nomination for Working Committees in 2010.

· Nomination for MSPA Core Committee in 2010.

· Feedback/ suggestions about functioning of MSPA, communication tool, ideas etc.

· AOB

Please send a one-line confirmation through email to mspa.core@gmail.com by Jan 28th 2010.

Based on how many parents confirm their participation, we will book a venue accordingly and convey to all of you. You have the choice to make it more meaningful. Things can change for the better if we all work together. Expecting more parents to participate and actively contribute to the betterment of the society.

Meridian Schools Parent Association (MSPA)
An association for Meridian parents, who are committed to bring some change in the society!! Are you doing your bit??