The Sixth Pay Commission would have wide-ranging effects on the financial health of private schools. From a direct impact on salaries and arrears, the Pay Commission will also signal increased maternity leave and special child care leave of two years and a hiked gratuity payment of Rs 10 lakh — a correction of almost 64 per cent over the previous Rs 3.5 lakh.

S K Bhattacharya, president, School Action Committee, a body of all school organisations in the Capital, said the government spends about Rs 1,800 per child per month towards the salary of teachers in government schools.

Given those numbers, it is understandable that the private schools will also need funds to comply with the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations, he said. Private schools have been demanding a tuition fee hike of up to 50 per cent, but the Education Minister has suggested categorising schools in slabs and reviewing their financial health before any hike is approved.

“We now have to create a fund for gratuity and from the fees I have to earmark a certain amount for it. Our entire budget will go up by 100 per cent,” Bhattacharya said.

While the SC Bansal Committee’s report is being studied by the Directorate of Education before it submits it to the Cabinet, speculation over the upper limit of the fee hike to be considered by the government is at best disappointing.

The average salaries of teachers in the city range from Rs 16,000 to Rs 35,000, according to school officials. After correction, and that is when the schools clear arrears and upgrade salaries, the financial burden on schools will go up by almost 100 per cent. Factor in special child care leave, the cost of substitute teachers and the enhanced gratuity, and the schools will need substantial funds to meet the new standards, National Progressive Schools Conference Chairman S L Jain said.

“It will (the impact) will be substantial,” Jain said. But first the government should allow them to hike tuition fees in order for the schools to clear the arrears and salaries, he said.

The new rates are effective from January 2006 and the arrears will be given in two instalments — 40 per cent during the current fiscal, the deadline for which has already passed, and 60 per cent in 2009-10.

In the case of the special child care leave, schools have some room. Rajni Arora, principal of Ramjas School, Anand Parbat, said the leave can only be given with the management’s approval and therefore schools have some discretion over how many teachers can go on leave at a time and whether that leave will hamper the education of children, in which case it can be cancelled.

“It is not as easy. We will have to work out a criterion,” she said. But in the case of gratuity, the school has no choice, she said. “Let us first work out salaries and then we will go to gratuity. We can’t look beyond the hike, at the moment,” Arora said.