Enhancement of Fees for Kendriya Vidyalayas

Enhancement of Fees for Kendriya Vidyalayas

The scheme of Kendriya Vidyalayas was approved in November, 1962 by the Govt. of India to provide uninterrupted education to the wards of transferable Central Government employees. Starting with the taking over of 20 Regimental Schools as Central Schools or Kendriya Vidyalayas during the academic year 1963-64 the Schools have now expanded to a network of 1087 schools all over the country and 3 schools abroad. This phenomenal growth is mainly due to the quality education provided by Kendriya Vidyalayas and ceaseless efforts put in by the employees of KVS. On 15th December, 1965 KVS was registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act. KVS is functioning under the Ministry of Human Resource Development and is financed by Government of India.

As of now Kendriya Vidyalayas have been catering to the schooling needs of the children of transferable Central Govt. employees including Defence and Para – Military personnel, children of employees of other Government undertakings and Autonomous Bodies as also of the floating population and others. Kendriya Vidyalayas are maintaining School Fund account to which all the moneys received in the form of Govt. grants and Tuition Fees received from the students are credited. In addition, Vidyalayas are also maintaining Vidyalaya Vikas Nidhi which came into existence after merging the then Pupil Fund, Maintenance & Development fund and Science Fund. Collection towards Computer Fund is also credited into VVN Account which is to be spent exclusively for computer education consumables, remuneration of computer instructors etc. Vidyalaya Vikas Nidhi is thus administered for the development of the School and overall welfare of the student community.

Activities at present covered under V.V.N. are mainly grouped as under:-

1. Annual Repairs & Maintenance etc: It includes repair & maintenance of School Building (Civil and Electricals), compound wall, Internal roads, furniture maintenance of Sports facilities and campus, Gardening & maintenance of School Park.

2. Classroom Facilities: Purchase, repair & maintenance of classroom furniture & fixtures, purchase and maintenance of Lab. Equipment including consumables as also the upkeep of laboratories, Purchase, maintenance and development of facilities such as library, academic facilities and infrastructure facilities, Vidyalaya magazine and student diary, Procurement, maintenance and development of Computer and Computer related technology including e-mail, inter net for students.

3. Student Activity and Welfare: Expenditure on Games and Sports, Scouts and Guides, Adventure/ Mountaineering/ Trekking, SUPW activities, Audio-visual activities, Pupils Societies, School Day Celebration, Conduct of Examination, School Day Celebration, Entertainment on Special occasion, Medical/Sanitation, Employment of workers on Part Time basis and any other expenditure for the benefit of the students/vidyalaya.

Revised rates of fees w.e.f. 01.04.2013

The scope of activities through the Vidyalaya Vikas Nidhi of the Kendriya Vidyalayas is enlarged in a geometrical progression day by day and the existing financial resources are inadequate to meet such new activities. In order to augment financial resources to meet additional requirement of funds, the VVN Contribution and Computer Fund is now revised with effect from 01.04.2013 as per details given below:-

Computer fund @ Rs. 150/- will be charged from the students who opt Computer Science/IP as an elective subject.

At present Government employees (whose wards constitute approximately 73% of total students enrolment) are entitled for reimbursement of fees @ Rs. 1250/- per month per child. Therefore, there shall be no burden on the parents as entire amount of revised fee will be reimbursable to them from their Office/Department concerned.

Remianing 27% of the school children are falling under the private categoroy (Vth category). Out of the 27%, 12% of the children are exempted from the payment of fees. However, even after the fee hike the fees charged by Kendriya Vidyalayas will be less than the prevailing fees charged by the private/ public schools in the country.

Causes for enhancement of fees and utilization of additional funds:-

(i) To provide for creation of ICT-enable class rooms in the Vidyalayas to modernize the teaching-learning environment as mandated through ICT policy of Govt of India which has further been stressed upon by the CBSE calling its affiliated institutions for conversion of at least one class room in each class into IT-enabled smart E-Class rooms, to begin with and increase the said infrastructure in a phased manner.

(ii) To provide for creation of corpus at RO/Hqrs level for meeting the infrastructural (building/sports etc.) requirements of the KVs as a whole by way of regular contribution in the form of remittance as certain percentage of the total collection of VVN fee. The existing contribution payable by the Vidyalayas to KVS RO Deposit Account, Regional Sports Control Board Account and National Sports Control Board Account at rate of 5%, 3% and 2% respectively will remain unchanged. In addition to the above a separate contribution of 20% will have to be remitted by all Kendriya Vidyalayas quarterly from the VVN collection to KVS (HQ) through their Regional Offices. Such contributions will be utilized by the KVS (HQ) towards major maintenance/ repairs and construction of additional class rooms/ laboratories/ playgrounds/ auditorium etc. for the existing Vidyalayas. This contribution may not be utilized for construction of school buildings/ staff quarters for the newly sanctioned Vidyalayas for which financial support is provided by Govt.

(iii) To provide for creation of suitable infrastructure for Language Labs etc.

(iv) To provide for suitable operational requirements of Fire safety.

(v) To meet the additional requirement toward the payment of salary to contractual teachers. In fact the rates for Payment to contractual teachers have been increased substantially which may cause a considerable financial burden on the VVN fund of the Vidyalayas.

(vi) Exemption from payment of any fee from 25% of students enrolled under RTE Act. This is likely to have multiplying effect by every year in the total strength of the school as such it is likely to lessen the VVN generation.

(vii) Apart from the exemption granted to RTE students, there is a provision of re-imbursement of Rs.4500/- per child per annum towards books, transportation, uniforms etc of the same lot of RTE students which is likely to cause considerable amount from VVN fund and hence requiring raising of fee, although the same may be got recouped from the Govt. but with no certainty as of now.

(viii) Exemption to BPL category students, single girl child students, disabled/challenged students etc have financial bearing on the collection of VVN for whom the expenditure is done by the Vidyalaya on holistic activities in normal course.

(ix) Revision of Minimum Wages by Govt. of Delhi/ respective states mandating the payment of enhance wages to the contractual staff employed for Security services, Conservancy services and horticulture/beautification activities of the Vidyalay.

(x) Providing of Medical facilities to the student community has been inducted by the KVS in the form of engagement of Doctors and Nurses on daily basis which is costing the VVN account of the Vidyalaya for Rs.42500/- per month (Rs. 1000+700=Rs.1700×25 days). This additional burden of regular expenditure needs to be compensated by way of raising the fee structure.

(xi) The KVS has approved the installation of Generator sets in the Vidyalayas out of VVN fund but the same has not been implemented in most of the schools due to paucity of funds which may get realized from the revenue generated through proposed fee hike.

(xii) Accidental compensation to the children while school hours.

(xiii) The provision of engagement of following categories has added to the additional expenditure to VVN account:
a.) Engagement of German teachers.
b.) Engagement of Data Entry Operators for ministerial works.
c.) Engagement of Counselors.
d.) Engagement of sub-staff against vacant posts/fire-fighting compliance/Generator set operator etc.
e.) Increased number of skilled staff viz sports coaches, dance, music, craft teachers etc.

(xiv) Above all, the substantial cost escalation in expenditure on all the items of expenditure warrants the fee revision to maintain the present status of the Kendriya Vidyalayas. To illustrate a few:
a.) Considerable enhancement in cost of annual Maintenance & Repair/Petty construction activities of Vidyalaya buildings.
b.) Cost escalation in Furniture items, Lab consumables, Sports goods, Examination related activities, pupil society items etc.
c.) Cost escalation in Electricity/Water charges, property tax, telephone expenses etc.
d.) Hike in stationery items viz computer cartridges, AMCs, printing papers, photocopies etc.

Source: www.kvsangathan.nic.in
[http://kvsangathan.nic.in/CircularsDocs/cir-actt-18-03-13.pdf]