#isitlegal

The biggest corruption in our country is and was, always, Education Corruption.

It could be called the MOTHER of all corruption....you have spent so much on education today for your kids SUNHERA KAL …tomorrow… your kids shall have no choice… but to reclaim that back. 

Let’s not even delve into the medical and engineering seats being sold with exorbitant price tags over and above the insane percentage cut offs.

Let’s start from the time when parents walk into a school to take admission for their GHAR KA CHIRAG or maybe GHAR KI LAXMI … they don’t have the slightest idea that the Chirag is going to need a lot of fuel to burn and that Laxmi is only going to flow unidirectional outwards … in an expectation to come back many fold someday.

Maybe some parents know well, what they are getting into and are more than willing to spend that extra Laxmi for imparting their children KNOWLEDGE which at the end of more than a decade is simply equivalent to a mark-sheet or a percentile.

Parents walk into this plush five star hotel like schools, which have sales rep like hostesses who are going to refer to you as SIR and MADAM more number of times than the receptionist at same hotel.

Parents are surely going to be floored by the décor of the school and the sugar coated sweetness of the hostess and then… they are handed over a fee chart. Admission fee, computer lab charges, stationery charges, term fee, tuition fee and blah blah blah. Books and uniform and activities and field trips and annual day costume will arise as and when. Now the main component of your fee chart is the CAPITATION FEES. Yes! Though capitation fees, you may believe is not legally chargeable, MANY schools are charging it BUT you shall not read the term CAPITATION FEES because it is tagged as DEVELOPMENT CHARGES or SCHOOL BUILDING CHARGES or DEPOSIT or some FANCY NAME. It could be anything from ten thousand to forty thousand. At least, as a parent, as many schools I visited for my kids this is a confirmed range. If you know more you could add here.

This is the root of EDUCATION CORRUPTION in our country and it simply grows from here. How can any governing body stop this? No they cannot! UNLESS… you let them know it…

Are you willing to…? Citizen reporting and Vigilant Citizen awareness can herald a massive cleanliness drive in our country. To start with…. Suppose you are a parent who has been handed the FEE STRUCTURE … highlight the CAPITATION FEE COMPONENT…. put technology to good use …immediately click a PICTURE of it and Tweet it asking if all the charges mentioned are LEGAL? Who should you tweet to? You are clever make sense of it! Share it with your whatsapp contacts! Party and picnic picture bahut lagga diye Facebook pe, now put it up as your status?

WILL YOU DO IT?

MOST chances are no! You shall forward umpteen numbers of forwarded senseless messages on whatsapp. But not this! WHY? Because … Chalta hai … aisa hi hota ayaa hai apne desh main…. This Chalta hai attitude has nurtured CORRUPTION in our country.

Let’s take and average of 500 students in a school which has 3 branches so that makes 1500 students multiplied by a capitation fee (which may be named differently but nevertheless it is CAPITATION FEES) of say minimum Rs. 10000 that makes Rs. 15000000.

Do I see your tongues out?

Now say for example even if it is a so called DEPOSIT it’s not rocket science to calculate the interest component on a sum of one and half crores for an average of ten years.

Now drive your imaginations and calculate this same math for the school your child is already in or you are planning to. There are some schools which are having more than 10 branches all over the country and remember we took a minimum of 500 students only per branch and a minimum of Rs. 10000 only as capitation fee.

What happens to this money? Where does it go? What is it really used for? These are some questions, as parents, we shouldn’t even bother to probe into.

Simply question WHY DEPOSIT? WHY DEVELOPMENT FEE? WHY BUILDING DEVELOPMENT CHARGES? WHY? This one WHY can unearth the roots of EDUCATION CORRUPTION in our country and the tremors of the tree being uprooted will eventually reach the people who enjoy the fruits of this HUGE TREE OF EDUCATION CORRUPTION.

Are you willing to ask WHY? Are you willing to shake the apple cart?

Think of this … we as parents by accepting this fee structure and willingly paying for it from our hard earned money are being a party to the biggest CORRUPTION in our country.

We are as much CORRUPT, as the CORRUPT themselves.

We in a way are training our kids to take those tiny first steps … into what we call GYAN KA MANDIR by paying a BRIBE and making that pure soul a part of this wrongdoing. We are in many ways trying to tell our children … Aise hi hota hai …aagey chalke tumhe bhi toh yahin karnna hai…

Are you willing to change? Are you willing to bring about a change?

Pick up your POWER TOOL in your hand your MOBILE PHONE …click the picture of the FEE CHART tweet it …. Asking is this LEGAL?

To start with, as a parent, I am taking this step to let you know that my kids were in an International Board for a few years and then in a National board school. And both schools charged a fee over and above the tuition fee, term fee, computer fee and blah blah blah. Both schools had fancy names for it. I choose to name it CAPITATION FEES. #isitlegal

NOZZER PARDIWALA 

*this is a heartfelt blog from a Parent, not an endorsement or tent pole advertising of any product so share this blog only if you truly believe in its content.