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Preschools cost a bomb, but parents still lining up to pay
Some premium preschools across the country are charging as much as Rs. 2 lacs p.a. for a child. In return, they offer a highly trained staff, child-safe ambience, nutritious meals, drop facilities. Besides all these, research shows that lessons learnt at this age stay with the child. Hence parents d
Every parent today wants their child to attend a Preschool before starting an actual academic school. While preschools have been around for some time now, however mostly were operated from homes while very few functioned from rented out garages within in residential apartments. With the introduction of branded preschools which boast of ‘amenities’ and professionally trained teachers the fees have shot up. For example, a family with an average income of Rs 5 to 8 lac p.a. will end up shelling almost 20% of its earnings on preschool fees.
Branded chains of Preschools charge anywhere between Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 2 lacs per year for children in the age group of 2 to 5 years. The premise of such exorbitant fees is the facilities, modern tools and technology of instruction like tablets, electronic boards, visual aids used at school besides the convenience of tracking their children through cell phone applications.
Just to put things in perspective, do you know that government aided college charge anywhere between Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1 lac for a postgraduate degree in management or engineering while a private degree sets the candidate back by Rs 3 – 5 lacs?
The new age preschools have become so systematic that some of them don’t even accept cash and fees are to be paid via cheques, credit card or DD only. In return, the parents are assured of carpeted floors, free nutritious food prepared in their kitchen under the supervision of a dietician, ratio of 1 staff member per 5 children, ID cards, safe toys, a ride home and curriculum developed by experienced educationists.
School managements reason that the high fee structure simply reflects the high costs incurred to run the schools. Hiring quality teaching resources like educated and experienced staff, maintenance of technology, timely training from top to bottom staff, procuring age appropriate teaching aids at the right cost, retaining the staff and maintaining infrastructure that is not only hygienic but safe for the child all add to the ballooning cost.
Sneha Tapadia, CEO of Jummpstart, said, "Experiential learning requires a lot of planning and resources to implement the plan. It also requires quality resources like educated teachers, maintenance of technology, timely training of staff from top to bottom, procuring right teaching aids at the right cost, retaining the staff and infrastructure's hygiene and safety which results in a slight increase in the fees structure."
With a large body of research conducted in the role of preschools, it has become clear that the lessons picked up in a kindergarten class cannot be considered any less important than what is being taught in higher classes.
Parent Suman Saxena echoes the school sentiment that high end teaching aids along with a scientifically developed comfortable environment are in sync with modern day needs and she doesn’t mind paying. "I have 2 children and the younger child has been enrolled in a preschool that has an international curriculum. The school has also provided a tablet loaded with learning tools, rhymes and other content taught in the school, so I feel it is value for the money," she added.
Many parents find that attending a preschool has other benefits too. Rohan Kulkarni, a parent, said, "Most big schools enquire about the previous school attended by the child. Many preschools have an informal connection so a student from a particular preschool is easily picked in a primary school. Hence parents do not mind shelling out the fees even if it burns a hole in their pockets."