The greed of the private schools located here knows no limits; it appears that the hapless parents of the kids studying in these schools are entangled in the multiple tentacles of the schools.
To earn profits these schools are using every trick in their bag which is packed with many such devices. These schools, apart from taking tuition, admission, conveyance and development fees, are minting money from sale of uniforms and stationery also.
The Doon valley boasts of many famous schools some of them attract students from all parts of the country and abroad. Almost all these schools are engaging in such ingenious methods to extract money from the common people that they can give any seasoned businessman a run for his money.
The schools are either providing the stationery from their own shop or are distributing a sort of dealerships to the stationery shop owners. One such shop owner said that the school owners do a very hard bargain as they demand a big amount in advance and a hefty 20-30% cut from the sales. The advance varies according to the school and is charged in lieu of giving the dealership of the books. No shop owner was willing to disclose the amount of this advance. The parents are forced to cough out whatever this nexus of school owners and book shop owners demand from them. The shop owners offer the complete package which includes books, workbooks, copies, pencils, erasers, covering sheets, stickers, colours and drawing sheets to the parents. The parents despite being aware that they are being cheated by the schools prefer to keep quite as they fear that any show of protest could invite the ire of school authorities against their kids.
SK Yadav, a resident of Harrawala, told this correspondent that the rates of the books are revised every year arbitrarily. The in charge of Universal Book depot located at the Rajpur road Chandra Prakash said that this year rates of school books have been revised in a range of 15-20 per cent, he cited increase in rates of printing and paper as the cause of this increase. A 172 page good quality copy which is easily available in market at a rate of Rs 28-35 is being charged at Rs 45-50 by these schools or their shop owners. The owner of Saurabh stationery at busy Paltan Bazar Vikas Kumar told this correspondent that the schools earn up to 40 per cent from the sales of the copies only.
The schools have also made uniforms the commodity of earning money. The schools tie up with the shop owners and ask the parents to purchase uniforms from these specified shops. The result is same like stationery as the customers end up paying more for the dresses of their wards.
The owner of Punjab Uniforms located at Kamal Market, Dipak Singhal said that a good quality school shirt for juniors which is priced at Rs 125 is being charged at Rs 200 at these specified shops. A tie which costs only Rs 20-30 normally is being sold at Rs 50-70 in these shops. Singhal said that the some schools officially say that the parents are free to purchase the uniforms from any shops but they mischievously put some particular design in the uniform so that the parents are forced to buy them from specific shops only.