A number of schools in the city have communicated to the parents that they would have to pay enhanced fees from April, while a few others will soon take a call on the fees they will charge in the new academic session.
Modern High School for Girls, South Point, MP Birla Foundation Higher Secondary School, Birla High School, Sushila Birla Girls’ School and Birla High School Mukundapur are among the institutions that have told the parents that they would have to pay enhanced fees once the new session starts in April.
While most of the schools have hiked their fees, a few haven’t done so but the parents will still end up paying more because the 20 per cent waiver on fees that the high court had ordered would lapse this month.
The high court had last week said the waiver it had ordered 149 unaided, private schools to offer to the parents would not be applicable from March.
“With prospective effect from 16th February, 2022, that part of our order permitting deduction of 20% of school fees shall stand vacated,” the order by a division bench had said.
The court had in October 2020 ordered the private schools, including those run by the Church, to waive 20 per cent of the tuition fees between April 2020 and a month after the resumption of in-person classes.
The state government has allowed schools to resume in-person classes for all students, from the pre-primary level till Class XII.
Many schools The Telegraph spoke to said the revised fees would come into effect from April.
“This is the need of the hour because there are certain things like repair or IT infrastructure upgrade that were kept on hold for the last two years,” said Brigadier (retd) V.N. Chaturvedi, secretary-general of Vidya Mandir Society, which runs Birla High School, Sushila Birla Girls’ School and Birla High School Mukundapur.
“We have informed parents that the full fees of 2019-20 will be applicable in March and from April there will be an enhancement in the fees,” he said.
Krishna Damani, trustee of South Point, said the parents had been informed that they would have to pay enhanced fees from April.
Modern High School for Girls has issued a circular saying the hike in fees they had announced in 2020 but could not implement it because of the pandemic would take effect in April.
Shri Shikshayatan School will charge the old fees, minus the waiver, in March and introduce a hike in April.
Sri Sri Academy will post the revised fees on its website.
“As directed by the high court, we will upload the 100 per cent fees on the website, which parents are supposed to pay. We will not have any hike,” said Sunita Sen, principal, The BSS School.
The division bench, while announcing the withdrawal of the waiver from March, asked guardians to pay the 80 per cent of the fees for the period between April 2020 and February 2022 by March 25.