With schools conducting virtual classes for more than a year now, parents are awaiting directions from the authorities on the school fees for the new academic year. About 40% of parents are facing difficulties paying school fees post the nation-wide lockdown. As businesses and jobs have been hit hard, the parents’ community is focusing more on savings and keeping liquid cash in hand for unprecedented times and seeking easy installment facilities to pay the fees.

Ahead of the Supreme Court’s verdict on fixing the school fee for the current academic year, a Gujarat-based leading fintech firm Credin carried out a survey. Credin runs a programme called CredinShiksha that helps parents to pay school fees on time which they can repay in installments with no added interest. Around 30,000 parents were invited to participate in a survey in which 50 percent of the parents responded to questions related to their economic condition and other financial aspects.

According to the survey, 55 % of parents believe it is necessary to keep liquid cash in hand due to the uncertainty, in turn delaying school fees payment. 68 % of the parents reported an impact on their income due to the pandemic and said it will take some time before it normalises. It is not that people are not willing to pay the fees but 60% of parents are seeking installment facilities to pay the school fees. The remaining 40% of parents delay the payment of fees as they feel that delaying the same will earn them discount in fees from schools and the government.

Manan Choksi, executive director of Udgam School for Children & Zebar School for Children, “During the last year, we received many requests from parents allowing them delay in payments or additional discounts in fees. In genuine cases, we have extended best possible help to the parents. Due to the pandemic, 25% of fees have been waived off as suggested by the government but we have observed that many parents are yet to pay the last academic year’s fees. In such scenario, managing fixed expenses is big challenge for any school. CredinShiksha programme will ease our parents to pay their fees in installment without any interest and the school authorities will also get the liquid fund on time to manage their fix expenses.”

To ease-out the financial burden of school fees, Credin offers an easy installment facility to the parents. Once the parent registers with the CredinShiksha programme, it pays the full year’s fee of a student to the school on behalf of parents as per schools requirement. The parent can repay the fee in easy installments without any interest. Speaking on this, Birju Naik, co-founder, Credin said, “With CredinShiksha programme, we are helping parents to pay school fees easily and it’s creating a huge impact. Schools need fees as they must manage fixed expenses, staff salaries, and the cost of managing the digital learning platforms. CredinShiksha offers a win-win solution for both educational institutions and parents.”  

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