Greed is good, that seems to be the mantra of schools in Bangalore.
As a DNA poll showed, the donation menace is very much alive and kicking in schools in Bangalore.
In the survey conducted by DNA in association with 3pundits.com — a Bangalore-based online community of parents and students — about 99% of parents admitted to having paid donation.
The poll question: “Have you ever been asked for donation from a school while trying to get admission for your ward?” received more than 200 responses.
According to many parents, schools in Bangalore ask for donations in various forms, both directly and indirectly. Many schools ask for hefty registration and development fees, along with admission fees, which go up to Rs1 to Rs2 lakh.
And many parents feel donation is akin to corruption. “The menace of donation needs to end somewhere. I waited for two long years to admit my daughter in a good school, without paying donation money. But, my desire remained unfulfilled. Last year, I ended up paying a donation of Rs50,000. I had no option as I would have wasted precious years of my daughter’s schooling,” said a father.
Many parents lamented that not a single school in Bangalore admits students without asking for donation money. Parents alleged that to get an admission in LKG or UKG in a reputed school in Bangalore, they had to spend no less than Rs80,000. Whereas the actual annual education fees/tuition fees is not be more than Rs30,000 in the same school.
“The remaining amount is charged under dubious heads such as admission fees, extra-curricular activities charges, stationery charges, audio/visual charges, school development charges, medication charges, Christmas/New Year anniversary charges and many more such kind of charges are levied on parent,” said a father.
In fact, parents revealed that many reputed schools ask for cash money during admission but don’t give receipts for the amount.
Donation by any other name is as repugnant
The announcement of a survey by DNA in association with 3pundits.com, a Bangalore-based online community of parents and students, on whether schools had demanded donation in return for admitting students was greeted with a flood of emails.
A father of a four-year-old, who had to admit his daughter in LKG at a renowned public school in Yelahanka, wrote, “I was asked to pay Rs40,000 to admit my daughter in the school. However, no receipt was given to me for the money that I paid.”
Another parent, whose child studies in the same school’s branch in eastern areas of the city, seconded his opinion. He said he was never given a receipt for Rs30,000 he had paid in cash. “The school has made it mandatory to collect this amount in cash,” he said.
Even the kindergarten students are not spared of this academic corruption. One young mother revealed she had to pay Rs47,000 as donation to admit her ward in a nursery school in RT Nagar.
A public school in the city had asked the parent to pay Rs30,000 in cash towards a special fee that was reserved for the development of underprivileged kids. But, here again, the receipt for the amount was denied. “If the cause is so genuine, how come they are reluctant to show it off with a receipt?” asked the parent.
DNA received another email from a mother, who said she had to pay Rs2 lakh as development fee, of which Rs1 lakh had to be paid in cash. In all these cases, the schools maintained that a receipt will not be given. And parents too, not willing to put their child’s education at stake, are left with no choice but to cater to the school’s unreasonable demands.
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