Hyderabad: Members of the Hyderabad Public School Parents Association have written to chief minister A Revanth Reddy, alleging that the school has increased fees by over 140% in the last four to five years and demanding that HPS, Ramanthapur, does not increase fees for the next three years.They also claimed that the school has been unilaterally increasing fees despite making hardly any improvements to the campus.“We are extremely disappointed with the consistent fee hikes imposed over the past five years. Additionally, the school is failing to provide the necessary educational standards, sufficient sporting opportunities and minimal medical facilities. Furthermore, students repeatedly find hair, insects, nails and cockroaches in the food served at the school,” the letter stated.The letter, sent to education department officials in the first week of Jan but only came to light on Wednesday, also alleges that parents are being financially exploited through fee hikes justified by the promise of new buildings, enhanced infrastructure and additional facilities, despite there being no evidence of these developments.“Until the school promises there won’t be any fee hikes for the next three years and establishes a parent-teacher association, we have decided not to pay the third-term fees,” a member of the association told TOI, adding that at least 50% of parents have not yet paid the fees. The member added that the management is targeting students, humiliating them for not paying their fees and asking parents to take a transfer certificate (TC) if they cannot afford the fees.According to parents, the annual fee for class 1 has increased from Rs 93,630 in the 2020–21 academic year to over Rs 2 lakh in the current academic year. During the same period, the fee for class 10 increased from Rs 1.1 lakh to Rs 1.8 lakh , and the fee for class 12 increased from Rs 1.3 lakh to Rs 2.08 lakh.Meanwhile, S Narsimha Reddy, the principal of HPS Ramanthapur, said that the fees are reasonable given the facilities provided. “Ours is a 40-acre campus. It’s not appropriate to compare our fees with those of smaller schools and describe them as high. We have a PTA, but it is not active. A new PTA will be formed in March,” he added.
