Srinagar: In a significant development, the government’s Fee Fixation Committee has gone tough against the renowned Foundation World School in Budgam district, cutting down its monthly tuition as well as annual fees to half, after finding major irregularities in the accounts of expenses of the school.
The development has followed a complaint filed by a parent, Muhammad Suhail Dar, who alleged that the school was charging tuition fee at arbitrary rates as compared to other Cambridge affiliated schools of J&K, especially the British International School in Jammu.
In February, this newspaper had reported that the said school was running without any registration and without permission for middle and secondary grade classes. The report had raised serious concerns among parents whose children were enrolled in the school, after which a committee was formed by Chief Education Officer (CEO) Budgam to look into the matter. However, there has been no headway into the matter, as yet.
The Foundation World School, which follows the International curriculum of Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) and claims to be the first of its kind in Kashmir valley, had been charging monthly tuition fees of Rs 6,000 to Rs 6,350, in a major disparity with other Cambridge affiliated schools of the valley which charge about Rs 3,000 as monthly tuition fees.
Acting upon the parent’s complaint, the Committee for Fixation and Regulation of Fee of Private Schools (FFRC) fixed the monthly tuition fees between Rs 2,900 and Rs 3,200 rupees for Nursery to 8th standard on Friday last week, thus reducing the existing monthly fees by over 50%. The annual fee, which earlier stood at 12,000 rupees, has also been reduced to only Rs 4,000.
In the complaint, the parent had alleged that without any approval from the competent authority, the school was charging fees at exorbitant rates from the students. There are only three Cambridge affiliated schools in J&K, he said, one among them being the Foundation World School and the other two being Oasis School, Gogjibagh, Srinagar, and British International School, Jammu. The parent pointed out there was major disparity in tuition fees with the Foundation World School charging Rs 6,350 per month compared to Rs 3,000 charged by British International School.
The Fee Fixation Committee headed by Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar asked the Foundation World School management to report before the committee in December last year. In its response, the school management claimed that they were running the school at cheapest fee structure among other international schools of India. Notwithstanding the fee disparity, the school management rather pitched for an increment in monthly tuition fees to 7,000 rupees and annual fees to 18,000 rupees citing “modernisation of different facilities and upkeep of the school”.
However, the Fee Fixation Committee asked the school management to furnish all details regarding the fees, income and expenditure of the school. After the school submitted the details, the committee found major irregularities with respect to income and expenditure of the school.
After scrutinising the Income and Expenditure statements, the committee found that the school had generated a surplus amount to the tune of Rs 32,42,562, and of Rs 50,63,169 and Rs 2,38,461 during the years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively.
In the year 2017-18, it found, the major expenses other than salary included branding expenses of Rs 25,14,459, estates/MOB expenses of Rs 58,24,190 and rent and taxes of Rs 5,51,362. In 2018-19, the major expenses other than salary included office expenses of Rs 40,78,589, student expenses of Rs 79,00,552, branding expenses of Rs 28,94,929, HR expenses of Rs 22,01,237 and rent of Rs 67,31,614. While as in 2019-20, the school has incurred major expenses other than salary expenses of Rs 1,24,08,473, branding expenses Rs 24,51,892, and rent and services of Rs 2,79,27,031, the documents revealed.
The committee concluded that “analysis of financial statements enumerated all above shows no clarity regarding the expenses on account of branding, estates, MOB and student expenses as no details are provided under these expenditure heads”. Ironically, the documents revealed, there was a huge jump in expenditure on rent-charges standing earlier at zero in 2017 while shooting to approximately three crore rupees in the year 2019-20.
“On account of tuition fee the School has received tuition fee to the tune of Rs 8,94,58,251 in the year 2019-20 and paid salary to the amount of Rs 3,49,25,999, resulting in surplus of Rs 5,45,32,252 out of tuition fee, which is more than 60%”, the committee noted.
Taking into consideration several factors including the location of the school, which currently functions from two branches, one at Humhama and another at Mammath, both in Budgam district, the committee revised the fee structure of the school for academic session 2020-21 and beyond. As per the approved fee, for Nursery to UKG the fee has been fixed at Rs 2,900; for 1st to 5th standard, at Rs 3,000; and for 6th to 8th standard at Rs 3,200.
Besides revision of monthly fee, the committee has also fixed the annual fee at Rs 4,000, three times less than the existing Rs 12,000.
“The school is run by a trust which is charitable in nature and is registered U/S 12-A of Income Tax Act. The settler of the Trust is father of the owner of the property who has leased out the property to the Trust. For initial years, zero rent has been paid and surprisingly it has jumped to almost Rs 3 crore within 2 years. The veil has to be lifted to ascertain the true picture,” the committee concluded.
In the meantime, the school has been asked to get the rent fixed by a government authority in terms of settled norms and accordingly submit report to the FFRC within three months.

KALEEM GEELANI