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School or business centre?

26 April 2006, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By An anguished parent, Motijheel, Dhaka
26 April 2006, 18:00 PM
Recently, I had the experience of getting my child admitted to one of the prestigious schools of the city. Well, I thought that this school would be different from others when all of my well-wishers were telling me that this school is really good. After a lot of hassle like interviewing of child and also parents and other things (it seemed the most important thing for the school is the income of the parents!), my child qualified to be admitted to the school. Initially, the school authorities sent us a letter stating that I needed to deposit Tk 50,000 of which Tk 20,000 was development fees and the rest Tk 30,000 as admission fees. The monthly charge which previously was Tk 2,000 was increased by 100 percent. And, remember, all these fees are for a child in the play group and again the child who is going to spend only 1-2 hours per day on five days a week. And again the classes will start in August next year but you have to deposit the total fees by the first week of December this year. A noble way to earn some extra bank interest? Being anguished by such a demand from the school, I thought I should talk to the school authorities first.

My first question was why I have to pay development charge? The answer given by the lady was that she was not empowered to answer my query and since others have already paid I need to pay. Immediately the following supplementary questions came to my mind :

-Am I a shareholder or owner of this school? Why should I be made to pay something for which the school authorities will be the sole beneficiary?

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-Why can't the school authorities or owners of the school invest for the development of the school? Over the years they have made a fortune--why can't they use that?

-What is the rationale behind increasing the monthly school fees from Tk 2,000 to Tk 4,000 in just one year?

I think it is high time that either the government or local authorities came up with guidelines or covenants to restrict these so-called educational institutions' money making spree. The following facts should be considered whilst designing guidelines:

1. Background of teachers. If you want to start practicing as a doctor, architect, lawyer, accountant etc, first of all you need a professional degree and than a licence to start practicing. Do the teachers have the requisite qualification or degree to impart education to children, do they have the ability to sharpen their skills on an incremental basis, how much time and money the school authorities spend on their training etc.? Currently, the only qualification that many of them have is that they are the wives of some reach people. And they have English medium background.

2. The fees to be charged should be determined by the facilities that they are providing. Almost all so-called renowned schools of Dhaka charge donation in the name of raising development funds. And we all know how this development fund is utilised subsequently.

Is there anyone to help us?