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Hyderabad: A group of parents protests against the fee hike by the Hyderabad Public School at Ramanthapur on Friday, April 17.

The parents alleged that the fees for primary and secondary classes have increased by 140 per cent and 84 per cent, respectively, in the last four years. According to the parents, HPS increased the fee for classes 2-5 from Rs 84,000 to 2,01,600 and for classes 6-10, the fee was increased from Rs 1,02,000 to Rs 2,08,000.

In a video shared online, the parents were seen organising a sit-in protest outside the school. They raised “We want justice ” slogans and said that Principal Narsimha Reddy did not pay heed.

“Today we held a protest at the Hyderabad Public School, but the Principal did not even bother to ask what our demands are,” one of the protestors told the media.

The parent explained that the fee has been increased by 140 per cent, “The fee should be Rs 1 lakh ideally, but the school is charging 2,50,000”. Some others said that the principal sent security guards to throw the protestors out.

“There is no proper education or medical facility. We demand the formation of a parents’ committee to address the issues and reduce the fee immediately.”

Speaking to Siasat.com, Venkat Sainath, General Secretary of the Hyderabad School Parents Association, said, “The school has not set up a parents committee; they have been charging high fees since there is no regulation from the government.”

“According to Government Order 45, released during the BRS government, schools were asked to collect only the tuition fee. However, the schools charged fees for various facilities too,” said Shah Taj Khan, a volunteer of the HSPA.

He said that the fee has been increasing since the pandemic in 2020-21,

Principal denies allegation

Principal Dr Narasimha Reddy said that the school is only charging the tuition fee, which is inclusive of lunch and snacks for the students. He also clarified that there was only 6 per cent fee hike in the last one year.

He also said that there was no fee increment for two years following the pandemic.

“The parents demanded that there be no fee hike for the next five years. It is an unrealistic demand since the school is run by the Hyderabad Public School Society, which looks after the expenses,” he said.

The principal added that the school doesn’t receive any funds from the government.