KOLKATA: A steep rise in fees by the authorities of a school in Rajarhat, on the eastern fringes of the city , prompted pupils' parents and guardians to stage a protest on Wednesday. A group of about 100 of them gathered at the entrance of St John's High School and blocked Rajarhat Road from 11am to 11.20am, trying to persuade the authorities to reverse their decision.Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, only recently , had promised to bring private school fees under the government scanner.Under the circumstances, Wednesday's snap agitation prompted the authorities of other better-known city schools to react against abrupt and steep hikes and justify the "moderate" hikes they enforce.The Rajarhat school had in troduced a 40% hike in monthly fees and a 100% hike in admission fees, prompting the agitation. At 11.20am, Trinamool leader and Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation deputy mayor Tapas Chatterjee intervened and spoke to the school authorities to consider reversing the decision, though no one from the school would later confirm whether they had done so."Apart from monthly tuition fees, the admission fee to a new class has been raised from Rs 4,800 to Rs 8,900," said Sabita Sau, the mother of a Class IV student. "Besides, we are forced to buy inferior quality uniform at higher-than-market-price rates from the school. It's the same with textbooks and exercise books. We had protested earlier, but the authority did not pay any heed to us, forcing us to block the road.""The chief minister has said that school fees will be reviewed by the government," Chatterjee said. "The 40% raise in St John's fees was quite atrocious. Lower-middle-class parents send their wards to this school. I spoke to the school authorities, who promised to reverse their decision."The city's elite private schools justified a yearly10%-11% fee hike. "We are dependent on tuition fees for all kinds of development. So, unless we introduce a monthly hike of Rs 400 to Rs 500 once a year, we will be unable to survive," said Mukta Nain, principal of Birla High School.The sentiment was echoed by Rita Chatterjee, principal of Apeejay Schools. "Our teachers have to be paid following the pay scale of government schools. To remain affiliated to CBSE, we have to ring in competitive upgrades. So, we need to go for a 10% to11% tuition fee hike every year," Chatterjee added.

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