A recent decision by the Karnataka Education Department to increase the minimum salaries of both teaching and non-teaching staff is set to further the burden of many parents whose children are studying in private schools.
As a result from the coming 2019-20 session, private schools in the state including those in Bengaluru is set to increase their fees steeply.
While private school managements have opposed the government decision to hike the minimum wages in a sudden decision, they claim they have no other option other than to go for a fee hike.
“This will definitely impact us very badly. We have heard about the news only yesterday and yet to have a full fledged discussions about it. See if they increase the salaries by this much, we have to hike our fees there is no other way. We have to see closely and discuss about how exactly we can balance this,” Srinivasan, President of Bengaluru CBSE Schools Association said.
“Maybe the government has some reason to take this decision and we will approach the government regarding the issue. Unfortunately we have holidays now, many of our staff and association members are out of station, So we have not been able to fix a date to discuss on the issue yet,” he added.
According to the new rules, the new minimum monthly salaries have been fixed at Rs 25,800 per month for primary school teacher, Rs 33,450 for high school teacher. The minimum salaries for first division clerk and second division clerks are Rs 21,400 and Rs 17,000 respctively.
Nibedita Ray Sahoo, a member of Karnataka Schools Parents Association said while the decision to increase the minimum wage is understandable, the government is not doing enough to regulate the fee structure of private schools.
“Anyway every year parents are forced to pay an increased fees of 10-15% on account of some reason or the other. But the government is not respecting orders of the courts with respect to regulating the fees,” she said.
In May, 2018 the government had issued a notification to cap the fee hikes in private schools under the Karnataka Education Institutions (Classification, Regulation and Prescription of curricula) Amendment Rules.
But parents claim that this has not changed anything in practicality.
It was reported at the start of the month that many parents group objected to the government’s non action over private schools not following the rule of displaying their fee structure on their website or notice board.