{"id":9947,"date":"2016-08-21T09:25:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T03:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/?p=9947"},"modified":"2021-08-16T10:42:02","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T04:57:02","slug":"kantipur-fm-commentary-the-business-of-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/kantipur-fm-commentary-the-business-of-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Kantipur FM Commentary: The Business of Education I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Continuing with publishing Kantipur FM commentaries I made as the host of a radio show way back in the Spring of 1998…<\/em>this commentary accompanied the February 2 show.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * * * * * * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Opening jingle]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awright\u2026 Seven and I\u2019m back. This is Dorje.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning I went to drop my brother off to school and pay his fees for the last two months. I had to fork out over three thousand rupees [approx. US$45 then] for a period that mostly consisted of vacation! It was then that I hit upon a brilliant idea for you\u2026a hot tip for you to make a lot of money!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More about that later but for now here\u2019s a number by Rod Stewart\u2014Go Out Dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Music, Rod Stewart followed by Joe Cocker.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was Joe Cocker having a go at Reggae, Bob Marley\u2019s Could You be Loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m thinking, why not establish a money-making factory, like a minting place?! And just print and produce money!! I am talking about real money, not counterfeit (fake) bills!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On second thought, that\u2019s probably not such a good idea\u2014that is after all illegal.  And no, that is not<\/u> the money making scheme I have in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before that, here\u2019s Tina Turner with a hard driving number We Don\u2019t Need Another Hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Music, Tina Turner followed by Saint and Campbell.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was Saint and Campbell with a cover of Oh Carol, a number that was a hit about 40 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From my experiences here in the education field\u2014I am professionally a teacher\u2014from my last eight months of being in the teaching business in Nepal and what happened this morning, opening a school, I have decided, is as good as minting money, printing bank notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow\u2019s that so?\u201d You may ask, and I say, \u201cAfter the next song, crazy!\u201d I mean after the next song Crazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Music, Seal followed by Suggs.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the Suggs with Cecilia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A school is as good as a minting place for two reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems 1. you can charge very high fees but no one will object.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can charge for anything and everything. Details to follow but in the mean time here\u2019s Europe with Carrie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Music, Europe followed by Rainbow.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was Rainbow with Temple of the King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monthly fees at my brother\u2019s school covers: tuition, boarding fees, computer fees and three times a year examination fees. Fair enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there\u2019s the yearly fee which covers: games, library, water and electricity, Science lab, School Magazines. Not bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the rest? The rest is what is disturbing! More about that later but for now here\u2019s Kenny Loggins with Footloose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Music, Kenny Loggins followed by Ratt.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was Ratt with Givin\u2019 Yourself Away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The break-down of the yearly fee also includes: maintenance (of what?), utensils and dormitory (doesn\u2019t that come under room and board fees, which they have also charged for?), ECA charges (what\u2019s that?), and a School Development fee of Rs. 1000!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, finally, service charges! What other services does a school provide other than all those for which fees have already been collected that it has to charge Rs. 3000\/year above and beyond all of them?! But you can get away with all of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gary Moore with Strangers in the Darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Music, Gary Moore followed by Bob Marley.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was Bob Marley with One Love\/People Get Ready. Yes, you can get away with all of that!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second reason is that you get a lot of benefits: tax benefits, import and purchase of vehicles to name just two!<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upshot of all this is that education can be a money making business in some cases in Kathmandu. That brings me to the end of this hour. This is Dorje saying goodnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up next Udaya Shree Top Ten with Sanju.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Closing jingle]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reproduction of the February 2, 1998 episode of the Kantipur FM, Marlboro Music Network radio show, in which I talk about how private schools could be a really profitable business. They are able to fleece families of their students. <\/p>\n

One of the ways they do that is by logging multiple charges for the same service, describing it using difficult-to-decipher acronyms and\/or terms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"#Kantipur FM Commentary: The Business of Education #SchoolFees #Nepal","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33],"tags":[331,334,142,118,354],"class_list":["post-9947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nepal-education-parenting","tag-kantipur-fm","tag-marlboro-music-network","tag-private-school-education","tag-radio","tag-school-fees"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/intro-to-basketball-554.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Jbro-2Ar","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}