IIT 'biggies' gobble up 200 affordable schools
If you have just moved to Hyderabad and looking for an affordable school near your locality, chances are that it has shut down and an expensive school that runs exclusive IIT training courses for students from an early age has sprung up in its place.
In the past year-and-a-half, at least 200 "affordable" private schools have been gobbled up by two chains of educational institutes that provide courses for competitive exams from junior level. About 2,000 such institutes have mushroomed in the same period across the twin cities.
These schools, which lure parents with dreams of seeing their children becoming future IITians with fat salaries have left officials very worried. "Parents should have a choice about which school they want to send their wards, but that is seldom the case now," A Subba Reddy, a district education officer told STOI.
Some of the schools which were immensely popular with the middle-class but have shut down, include St Augustine in Boiguda, Sadar school at Madannapet, Vidyaniketan Talent School at Narayanguda, Om Vidyalaya at Barkatpura and Genius Grammar High School and Shantiniketan High School, Amberpet.
Some areas in the city have seen a huge drop in "affordable" schools, where the annual fees hover around Rs 35,000-Rs 40,000 per year compared to Rs 75,000 -1 lakh per year charged by specialist schools.
Officials and parents association members said IIT coaching schools are either buying out the neighbourhood schools, or luring students with free tuitions for a short while and later charging huge sums for training their kids for competitive exams.
"Parents should encourage smaller schools by not getting drawn to the bigger brands," said Sangeetha Reddy, a school owner. S Srinivas Reddy, president of the AP Recognised Schools Management Association, said he has come across many such instances and in one case managed to stop a very popular school in Ramanthapur
from shutting down, after a big chain had lured half of its students away.
"They were running into losses and I somehow managed to save it with help from some like-minded people," Reddy told STOI. But not many were so lucky. "I struggled to find a decent school which was cheaper as the one recommended by my relative in Bangalore. I am forced to spend nearly 40% of my salary now on education of my two kids," said Mrinalini Nair, a resident in Himayatnagar.
About six months ago, the schools education department had asked all specialist schools to drop qualifying words such as "Techno" and "Olympiad" to prevent marketing of the brand name, but no steps have been taken to implement so far.
In the past year-and-a-half, at least 200 "affordable" private schools have been gobbled up by two chains of educational institutes that provide courses for competitive exams from junior level. About 2,000 such institutes have mushroomed in the same period across the twin cities.
These schools, which lure parents with dreams of seeing their children becoming future IITians with fat salaries have left officials very worried. "Parents should have a choice about which school they want to send their wards, but that is seldom the case now," A Subba Reddy, a district education officer told STOI.
Some of the schools which were immensely popular with the middle-class but have shut down, include St Augustine in Boiguda, Sadar school at Madannapet, Vidyaniketan Talent School at Narayanguda, Om Vidyalaya at Barkatpura and Genius Grammar High School and Shantiniketan High School, Amberpet.
Some areas in the city have seen a huge drop in "affordable" schools, where the annual fees hover around Rs 35,000-Rs 40,000 per year compared to Rs 75,000 -1 lakh per year charged by specialist schools.
Officials and parents association members said IIT coaching schools are either buying out the neighbourhood schools, or luring students with free tuitions for a short while and later charging huge sums for training their kids for competitive exams.
"Parents should encourage smaller schools by not getting drawn to the bigger brands," said Sangeetha Reddy, a school owner. S Srinivas Reddy, president of the AP Recognised Schools Management Association, said he has come across many such instances and in one case managed to stop a very popular school in Ramanthapur
from shutting down, after a big chain had lured half of its students away.
"They were running into losses and I somehow managed to save it with help from some like-minded people," Reddy told STOI. But not many were so lucky. "I struggled to find a decent school which was cheaper as the one recommended by my relative in Bangalore. I am forced to spend nearly 40% of my salary now on education of my two kids," said Mrinalini Nair, a resident in Himayatnagar.
About six months ago, the schools education department had asked all specialist schools to drop qualifying words such as "Techno" and "Olympiad" to prevent marketing of the brand name, but no steps have been taken to implement so far.
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