Impending hike in nursery school kids’ fee leaves parents worried - Hindustan Times
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Impending hike in nursery school kids’ fee leaves parents worried

Hindustan Times | By, Chandigarh
Dec 21, 2015 06:02 PM IST

With the UT education department having released the common admission schedule for nursery admission a day back, parents of children are becoming increasingly curious to know the new fee structure of the top schools in the tricity, which has 82 private schools.

With the UT education department having released the common admission schedule for nursery admission a day back, parents of children are becoming increasingly curious to know the new fee structure of the top schools in the tricity, which has 82 private schools.

Nursery admissions are done on the basis of draw of lots in the city schools.(Gurpreet Singh/HT Photo)
Nursery admissions are done on the basis of draw of lots in the city schools.(Gurpreet Singh/HT Photo)

Keeping the fact in mind that there has been annual hike in fee each year, parents are concerned whether their ward will get admission in the best school of the city, besides affording the sky-rocketing fee.

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Yogesh Singh, a resident of Sector 33, Chandigarh, who wishes to get his child enrolled in either St John’s, Vivek High or Strawberry Fields, said, “I hope the hike is not too much this year or it will add to our stress. It’s a matter of our child’s education.”

Similarly, Malvika Kapoor, who wishes to enroll her daughter in one of the missionary schools in the tricity is also concerned over the number of general seats that will be available. “There is already so much to worry about and on the other hand, most of these schools end up increasing their fee by over 10%. The entire process has become costly,” said a worried mother.

Meanwhile, chairperson of Vivek High School and president of the Independent Association of Schools, Chandigarh, HS Mamik said the institute was likely to increase the fee by a minimum 12 to 15% for the upcoming academic session.

Citing the increase in infrastructural and other facilities as the reasons for the same, he said the hike is justified. “We have air conditioned rooms for junior wing classes. By the end of the next year, we will also have AC classrooms for the entire school. Besides, overhead charges of electricity and water has increased now,” added Mamik.

However, St John’s High School principal Kavita C Das said the school was yet to receive a confirmation from the school management about the increase in fee, but he ensured that it was going to be within 10%. Strawberry Fields, Sector 26, which is known to be the most expensive in the tricity, will increase its fee by 10%, confirmed school director Atul Khanna.

Meanwhile, a few school principals also reiterated about how the seventh pay commission was yet to be implemented and hence, that too was likely to create some confusion in this regard. Mamik said, “This is why the increase in fee in most of the preferred schools is likely to be more gradual.”

Ashish Bhatnagar from the admission committee of Chitkara International School told HT that a 14% hike has been decided for nursery kids seeking admission. While the current admission fee is Rs 54,800; it will go up to Rs 62, 750, excluding the tuition fee from 2016-17 session.

Moreover, issue of limited number of seats is also a cause of concern for the parents. Around 7,000 applications were received against 1,775 available seats for the top 15 private schools of the city, including Strawberry Fields, Vivek High School, Chitkara International and all of the four convent schools - St John’s High School, Carmel Convent, Sacred Heart School and St Anne’s.

We don’t interfere in determining fee structure: EDU Dept

The education department officials, however, continue to claim that they do not interfere in determining the fee structure of the private schools during the nursery admissions and don’t plan to issue any guidelines in this regard either.

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