Many schools offering insurance covering fees to those taking loans

Hyderabad: Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, several schools in the city have started offering insurance covering school fees to those taking loans from the academic year 2021-22.Most of them are said to be offering insurance when parents are opting to pay the fee through third-party firms. Parents said that instead of offering insurance to only those taking loans, the facility should be offered to everyone.

“If the intention is to provide insurance for the benefit of students, why not extend it to everyone? What’s the logic behind providing it to those who are taking loans to pay school fee? It is just a way to protect the school from defaulters,” said Ashish Naredi, whose daughter is studying in class 8 in an international school in the city.

He said that schools should provide insurance to everyone. “It should be fine even if they collect a nominal amount for the insurance and cover school fee of students for certain years in case of any untoward incident.” Another parent, whose child is studying in class 6 at a school in Begumpet, said “While there was no charge for insurance last year, I have noticed that along with April’s fee, the school has also added books fee and insurance this year.”

During the pandemic, several schools in the city and elsewhere in the country tied up with fintech companies to provide loans to parents. If parents opted to pay fees through these firms, they were given an option to pay the fee on a monthly basis instead of paying term fees. Along with the loan, insurance and rewards are also provided to parents.

In the academic year 2020-21, as many as 3.8 lakh parents, mostly of schoolgoing children, have taken loans, which are provided at zero or low-interest rates. During the current academic year, even more number of parents are said to be opting for these loans. Meanwhile, some schools are said to be providing accident insurance to students, especially boarders.

“We provide accident insurance to boarders, but don’t charge any amount from parents. This insurance covers any accident, like a student getting injured on the playground, etc, but not general health,” said S Narasimha Reddy, principal, Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur, adding that they don’t provide any insurance for school fees.

Source: The Times of India

News Update (insurancealerts.in)