It’s not April but June that’s the cruelest month for city parents, as it is the most expensive time of the year. In June the household expenditure shoots by over 60 per cent when compared to other months. The school fee amounts to 60 per cent of the extra burden on parents and the rest of the expenditure is on school stationary, shoes, uniforms and lunch kits.
As per this year’s fee structure in most schools the expenditure per child is huge, parents rue. While in some schools the expenditure in the beginning of the academic year is around Rs 20,000, in others it is somewhere around Rs 80,000. In every household the average expenditure on school fee which includes term fee, transport, sport and extra curricular activities fee would be around Rs 35,000, parents said. Average expenditure on books, laboratory equipment will be Rs 10,000 and for uniforms too parents are made to set aside Rs 10,000. The school shoes, lunch kits and school stationary would add up to Rs 6,000. To top it all, parents also spend Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 on private tuitions, if their children are in high school classes. “I spent about Rs 65,000 right at the beginning of the academic year this month. In the city most of the parent’s income is going into schooling budget,” said K Ramana Kumar, a city parent.
To add to parents’ woes many school managements have increased the fee even this year. “This year too there has been 10 to 50 per cent increase in school fee. It’s becoming difficult for parents to fi nd good schooling for their children at an affordable cost,” said Kamal Malliramani, a city parent. Parents have also devised ways cope with the June frenzy and the extra fi nancial burden which comes along with it. “This year I paid Rs. 18,000 for my son’s school fees and spent another 18,000 on shopping for this term. To make up for the increase in cost we had to drop our summer holiday plans,” said Venugopal Madishetti, a city parent.
Times of India | Hyderabad Edition | Page 2 | 7th June, 2012
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