City schools fleece students with new purchase rules

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

Private school students are in a fix these days. They cannot buy uniforms and books from the open market. Because the management forces them to buy the stuff only from the schools. That too by paying much higher than that market price.

Parents, who are feeling the pinch, have now urged the government to intervene in the issue and rein in the schools. School officials, on the other hand, say that such regulations will help them maintain consistency.

According to the existing rules, schools can provide only a list of books or patterns of uniforms and shoes. Parents are allowed to buy the required items from the open market. Fleecing parents is a violation of the Fee Regulation under Karnataka Education Institutions (Classification, Regulation and Prescription of Curricula) amended rules, 2018.

The Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) too has banned schools from selling stuff or insisting that parents buy from them or a particular vendor.

A popular school in Rajajinagar has mandated the students to buy books, uniforms and shoes only from the school. “My daughter is in Class 11 and I paid a huge amount than the market price. It left a deep cut in my pocket,” said a parent

The parents alleged that schools change the uniform designs every year to force them to buy new sets. “Even if the old uniform fits my daughter perfectly, I have to go buy a new set. This is being done frequently without any reasonable explanation. Schools do this to make money,” she said.

A school in Vijayanagar allows students to buy books from outside. However, it insists that they should buy a particular shoe brand from the school. “Last year, we did not have a compulsory school shoes rule and we wore any black shoes. But now the school has mandated us to wear a shoe from a particular brand,” said Keerthi, a Class 11 student.

“While the uniform has been kept at a reasonable rate of Rs 2,600 for a science student and Rs 2,100 for a commerce student, the cost of the shoes is worrisome,” said Keerthi’s mother