What is the fees structure and admission process in St Patric's Academy Bangalore
Last week I visited the St Patrick's school, Bangalore to gather some information about the admission for one of my friends relocating from USA to India. If you like to know the fees structure in St Patrick's, read this blog.
St Patrick's Academy is a not-for-profit educational institution in Bangalore. They provide excellent infrastructure and is really one of the low-cost schools in Bangalore. In fact, the low fees in the school make many parents mistake the school as a sub-standard school. When we were searching for schools in Bangalore city, we were hearing that a reasonably good school will charge at least Rs 50,000 per year as the fees and the international school would charge anywhere between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakhs. The only exception is various Christian schools and other not for profit schools run by the religious institutions.
Fees structure in St Patrick's Academy, Bangalore
The fees could change slightly each year and can vary slightly in each standard. This is the fees structure in the 1st standard in the year 2011-2012 academic year.
Admission Fees: Rs 10,000 (only first year)
Tuition Fees: 31,650
Total fees for 1 year: 41,650
Other fees:
School bus: The school bus fees depends on the distance from the school. It could be anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 per year.
Usually, school does not ask for any other money. The only extra fee they asked so far (within first 3 months after joining the school) is Rs 100 for my younger child to buy something when he participated in a dance program.
Buying accessories for extra curricular activities
This is one thing that frustrates me in St Patricks. For each extra curricular activity, we need to buy some small things (hand gloves, rangoli powder, hair ribbon etc). I am perfectly okay in spending for the extra curricular activities, but the part that frustrates me is, kids don't come home with exact specification of the item to be purchased. We will run from shop to shop looking for something the kids suggested, buy something and later discover that is not what they wanted.
I went to the principal and suggested the school to buy the accessories for kid's extra curricular activities and charge a premium to the parents. Principal's view was, if school buy them, there may some items unsold and school will lose the money. But in my view, charging a premium will cover the loss for the school. To buy a pair of Rs 19 value hand gloves, I spent Rs 19 for the gloves + Rs 50 for another pair I bought but later found that is not what they wanted + 2 hours of my time running from shop to shop asking for 'gloves for kids size' + another Rs 600 for a family dinner after the glove-search! I would rather happily pay Rs 38 for the glove to the school if they purchase and give to kids. But unfortunately, my suggestion was not accepted by the school. (In fact, I did not invent this idea. Many other schools do this. They purchase everything and kids to kids and charge a premium.Scholarships in St Patrick's Academy
St Patrick's offer lot of discounts on the fees and scholarship to smart children from a poor background. There is no formal process or rules yet, but the management does this at their discretion. If you cannot afford the fees and you deserve a discount on the fees, meet the management and discuss.
Join St Patrick's Parent User Group to learn more about the school and find the feedbacks from parents.
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Hi Tony,
I have been watching your posts for the past one week. It was really informative and useful.
I enquired at St: Patrick's Academy for my daughter's admission to nursery for June 2012 batch. The total fees asked is nearly 45K which includes admission fee 20K (one time payment). So tuition fee will be nearly 25K per year. What will be the rate of increase in tuition fee for next classes? If you have any information, please share.