Schooling costlier than college now

Last month my son turned 2.5 yrs and as a concerned dad, I have started thinking whether I should get my son admitted in one of the schools in US or India. I had came to US for few months on a small assignment - toured all major cities and thought what next? May be spend few years with my wife and by the time the son goes school will return back. Now I have entered in the comfort zone, have tasted luxuries and the appetite which doesn't wants to stop. The battle will go forever but deep inside my heart I know someday I will return back. When, I don't know?

Keeping both the options open, I have started exploring school options both in US and India. In next few posts I will share my experience on the ongoing research.

Below article was bolt from the blue. Nursery admission fees at some schools starts at 50,000Rs. What's the fees I am going to pay when my son goes for professional education? I went to one of the NIT's and paid 7500 Rs/year as tuition fees which is 30,000 Rs of tuition fees for 4 yrs of engineering education. On top of that there was 1000 Rs/month for hostel, mess and pocket money which converts to 12,000 Rs/year or roughly 50,000 Rs for 4 years. Got engineering degree in 80,000 Rs (4 yrs of education). The fees which schools these days are commanding will dwarf what my parents spent a decade back.

I researched on few of the schools in Bangalore and here is my report. Majority of schools don't have the site and those who have the site they haven't mentioned the fees. Ironically only Brigade School has listed the fees.
Registration - 70,000 Rs, Yearly School Fees - 33,000

That leaves a big gap for people like me who don't get opportunity to visit Bangalore school and inquire on the fees. It also gives an opportunity to fill this gap. My journey to explore on Bangalore Schools , their academics curriculum and fees doesn't ends here. Stay tunes for more news.

Meanwhile read below for more detailed news on "Schooling costlier than college now".

Source

BANGALORE: ‘Donation’ is a word that doesn’t exist in the lexicon of the education sector. Nobody ever admits to taking it. ‘Development fee’ is another matter altogether. Almost all schools (there are a few exceptions though) levy this fee when a child is admitted to a school either at pre-primary or primary stage.

While nobody bats an eyelid about either paying or taking it, what has caught most unawares is the rather steep rise in development fee charged by schools in the past few years.

The sum charged has headed north by about 20% annually. In 2000, the annual development fee per child, per annum was around Rs 600. Now, schools charge anywhere between Rs 1,000 and Rs 4,000 per year/child.

Going by the numbers given by some top schools in Bangalore, the fee for admission at nursery level goes up to a whopping Rs 50,000 which includes both development and tuition fee. Taking the fees on par with those charged for professional courses.

A major chunk of this booty, say schools, is collected as admission fee and this includes tuition and annual development fee. The remaining amount is capital expenditure for which schools charge between Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000. Schools argue that as development fee is used for regular upkeep of premises, the increased charges is due to escalation of costs of raw material and labour. They also argue that after the Supreme Court judgment in the T M A Pai case, schools are allowed to fix their own fees.

Consider this: a medical seat through the Karnataka Examination Authority is charged at Rs 35,000 and engineering a mere Rs 25,000. These figures seem paltry compared to the fees charged by schools. Institutions argue that the amount is “not much”. They say this has been the fee structure followed for years and is the sum incurred by them for the child’s education.

A few other schools argue that this sum pales in comparison to the annual fees charged by international schools.

“This is the standard fee structure followed by all schools,” says a school principal on condition of anonymity. Another principal of a leading school says: “Everywhere, school education is much more expensive than professional courses.” Justification for the fees is thus — the annual fee covers not only tuition but also sports, media centre, playpen, learning aids and other material.

Again, this varies from school to school and the area in which the school is located.

Schools also maintain that the fee collected for development work is not used for any other purpose. Interestingly, parents are not batting an eyelid. They see nothing amiss in this.

So too with Krishna Iyer, general secretary, Associated Management of Schools in Karnataka. He says that schools charge anywhere between Rs 30,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh as capital expenditure at the time of admission. Iyer justifies the fee saying that it is one-time payment which covers 12 years of education. Further, he says the school managements invest crores on infrastructure on borrowed money. “They have to repay the amount,” he says.