Port Blair, Mar 07: Carmel Senior Secondary School, Port Blair is one of the premier institutions providing quality education to the children of these Islands. But the School often comes in news for charging exorbitant fees from students.
Now once again parents of students, studying in Carmel Senior Secondary School, have decried exorbitant fees complaining that the schools is exploiting them in the name of offering sound education to their children.
According to the details available from parents, during the beginning of the 2012-2013 academic session, the School charged Rs. 300 as Session Fees, Rs. 200 as exam Fees, Rs. 800 as Maintenance Fees, Rs. 300 as Development Fees and Rs. 850 as Tuition Fees. Altogether for per student parents paid Rs. 2450 as yearly fees.
But again in the mid of the 2012-2013 academic session a Notice was sent by the school authorities to the parents stating that they had made mistake in calculating the fees and they are facing a shortfall of Rs. 250 per student per month. Hence for each students, parents were asked to deposit Rs. 250 X 12 = Rs 3000 extra.
This notice came as a rude shock for many parents as in the mid -session as they had to pay Rs. 3000 extra, all of a sudden because of the mistakes, made by the school authorities.
In the month of December 2012 the students of the school were again asked to bring many commodities for the poor children for one week. According to parents, one day they were asked to new clothes, second day Horlics Bottle, third day gifts, and fourth day students were asked to bring soaps etc etc. However, nobody knows where all these collected materials went.
This is an example of compulsive charity practiced by the school without even knowing if all the students will afford to buy these things.
Recently on 18/02/2013 again letter was sent to the parents whose wards are studying in the school which stated in one of its Para that “Parent/Parents must accompany the child to collect the results. Kindly bring along Rs.600 and give to the class teacher, who will give you an acknowledgement receipt of the amount with details.”
The amount of Rs. 600 which was demanded by the school authorities meant a lot to some of the middle class parents whose wards are studying in the school and they were pretty distressed that they will again have to pay Rs. 600 extra per student.
No reasons for the demand fees of Rs.600 were initially stated by the school authorities and blindly it was written to bring along Rs. 600.
Following this many parents questioned the school management and took up the matter with Andaman Sheekha. After getting the complaint Andaman Sheekha reporter met the Principal, Sr. M Supreeka, A.C. to clarify the reasons for this blind and unnecessary fee structure.
The Principal of the school showed some documents to our correspondent but the copy of the same was not provided to us. The principal of the school further tried to suppress our reporter by telling him that if any negative story comes out she will go to the highest authorities including the Lt.Governor and complain about the newspaper. However, by the evening the Principal had also send SMSes to Andaman Sheekha reporter, which contained soft and kind words.
When the principal was asked about how they utilize the gifts that students bring on some special days for charity she said that the day the gifts are received the same day only they are packed and are sent to different places for distribution among poor and needy. She further informed that 50% of the monthly turnover of the school goes in providing salary and for the monthly expenses and the rest 50% is utilized for development of school and charity.
“If any of the parents are financially distressed and need concessions they should come to school office and meet me and I will help them by providing concessions,” she said.
She added that the fees of Carmel Senior Secondary School, Port Blair is comparatively very less than all the Carmel Schools located all over India.
Finally after the approach of Andaman Sheekha and many parents for knowing the reasons for the demand of Rs.600 on the result day, Principal of the school on 6th of March 2013 sent a notice to all the parents stating the reasons for the demand fees.
The notice said an amount of Rs 300 is for School Diary, Fee Book, ID card, School Magazine etc, Rs. 130 for Water, Electricity bills/Periodicals etc., Rs 70 for audio visual/ Orientation sessions/ Care and Share and Rs. 100 for Carmel NGO (Asha Deep Trust).
Parents allege that the Charge of the fees for electricity, water bills and for charity to Carmel NGO is totally unjustified as every month the students studying from grade I-XI are paying all necessary fees but still the school is charging fees from them in order to pay electricity and water bills.
Rs 100 for charity to Carmel NGO is another form of compulsive charity that the school is practicing whereas according to the laws no compulsion can be put on anyone to contribute to charity. Charity should be by one’s own will and not by compulsion by some authorities.
The fee of Rs. 3000 which was demanded in mid-session due to estimation errors made by the school authorities was also unjust deed for the parents as they admit their wards keeping in mind their annual budget for education.
It is good that Carmel Senior Secondary School, Port Blair believes in charity and is successfully doing charity at all levels but the school authorities should take into consideration the problems faced by the poor parents to pay these extra fees to the school, again and again.
Fuming parents now demand some kind of control over private schools so that they can’t exploits general public by slapping extra fees again and again. The Lt. Governor and Chief Secretary must look into this matter and come for the rescue of students and parents of the school.
