Schools of Sorts: Too Taxing for Parents

Seems like they just can’t get enough of brutally fleecing parents no end. Despite charging huge sums of money as school fee, the private schools continue to go on a rampage overcharging parents in the shape of “Advance Tax Collection”. Parents are incessantly being plundered of additional costs included in the fee chalaans in the name of myriad title heads such as ‘Other Charges’, ‘Technology Fee’, ‘Utility - Air Conditioner (though hardly any air-conditioner is found to be operating in the class rooms), ‘Utility -Generator’, etc., and the important thing is, parents barely have any clue what these so-called charges correspond to and their legitimacy remains clandestine and unwarranted.

It is rather baffling why the authorities have not been lending their ears to this grave ‘deliberate’ anomaly let alone take any action on it. Why isn’t the current government attending to this mass irregularity? Whatever happened to ‘Parity in the Education System’ loudly boasted in the manifesto?

Let me clearly point out the fact that ‘parity’ does not only require equivalence in the education system or for that matter the curriculum itself, but in order to get government and private schools at par (in standards), there is a need to keep parity in the school fee structure in some form as well.

How else then, does the current government vow to ‘educate’ all and sundry in the country?

Would ‘promise of education to all’ be only confined to books and papers?

Will education continue to be a ‘privilege’ rather than a ‘right’?

With clock ticking and nothing being done on this front by the concerned authorities, it definitely seems like a far cry!

As for the salaried class, already financially bruised and battered, the tax liability has doubled because of this. First, the tax is being deducted from their salaries at payable rates and secondly when parents pay their children’s fee out of the already tax-paid amount, yet the tax is being deducted further in the shape of ‘Advance Tax’ on the school fee.

Although the authorities have claimed that the tax paid on education fee is adjustable against the total tax liability of a person, it is still needless to unnecessarily overburden a common man who is already in the clutches of myriads of miseries – particularly, inflation.

I, therefore, earnestly appeal to the government to look into this matter with great urgency by having a crackdown on all the schools charging hefty fee with hidden or indefinable charges and relieve parents of this uncalled for predicament.

Note: The views expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The News.