Parents upset over police school charging high fees

Hyderabad: A day after being inaugurated by chief minister A Revanth Reddy, the Young India Police School (YIPS) came under fire after a section of parents pointed out how it was violating govt norms (as per GO 91) by collecting admission fees of up to 20,000.
According to the order issued in 2009, the maximum that private schools can collect for admission fee is 5,000. Yet, several private schools across Hyderabad, reportedly collect upwards of this amount — touching even a lakh in some cases.
"YIPS too is blatantly violating norms. They are charging 20,000 as admission fees and are even selling books and uniforms — which is also not allowed as per the govt order," alleged K Venkat Sainath, organising secretary, Hyderabad Schools' Parents Association (HSPA).
The charge was, however, denied by CV Anand, vice-president of the governing society of YIPS. Speaking to TOI, he said, "The admission fee is mentioned in the brochure but it is not being collected from parents." He, however, admitted to the school charging a different fee for different categories of students "to be able to provide quality education to children of martyrs and home guards at an affordable cost".
YIPS currently has an intake of 200 seats — 100 for children of police personnel and the remaining for civilians. The fee is 40,000 per annum for children of martyrs, 50,000 for kids of Home Guards to ASIs, 95,000 for SI to DSP rank officials, 1.4 lakh for children of SPs and above, and 1.6 lakh — the highest of all — for civilians.
"When I heard about the school, I was interested in admitting my child there. But I dropped the idea after seeing the fee. It would have been better if the fee was below 50,000 for everyone. Now, it is out of reach of the majority of the parents," said Sireesha V, whose child is in Class 1.
Officials from the Telangana Education Commission (TEC) said that bringing in a fee regulation commission is the only way to cap such fee structures. "Bringing in a commission is the only solution to this problem," the official added.