If you manage to put him in a good play school (one which will not drill A-B-C and 1-2-3 into his head right in the beginning), paying the monthly school fee could start making your household budget go for a tizzy.

Stating the obvious is Archana Mathur, a mother who recently put her three-year-old child in play school. "I was told by most of my friends to put away anything between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 for the initial fee. And, of course, I was also told that the monthly fee could range from anything as low as Rs 250 to Rs 1,500 per month."

Mathur chose to put her child in a school close to her home in East Delhi. But the story holds true for most of the other areas of Delhi, with the fee in South Delhi being just marginally higher. A young parent, who recently put his child in a play school in Vasant Kunj, says that even he had to shell out Rs 17,000 as the initial fee.

But do thefacilities provided by the school justify such exorbitant fees? "Yes," Seema Bhandari, principal of the Children's Valley School in Preet Vihar, is quick to say. (Her school charges Rs 5,000 as the initial fee with a monthly tag of Rs 1,500, inclusive of conveyance). A former principal of the Air Force School, she insists that the standards maintained by her school are beyond compare.

Being run from a house, the school gives the children some refreshments during the day. In addition, they are provided with toys to play with during the three hours that they are there. The school also boasts of providing the children with clean drinking water.

East Point School in the same area charges a phenomenal Rs 11,000 as the admission fee. But the annual charge is a little lower, at around Rs 500. The children are asked to bring in their own lunch and water bottles.

Another school in the area is Arunodaya. Terming themselves as an educational society being run for the betterment of children's welfare, the school isbeing run from a complex that is actually still coming up. Thus, labourers, contractors and children all roam around together, with work on the school premises going on during school hours.

Charging Rs 5,000 as the annual fee and Rs 400 per month, the school promises the children conveyance, but does not always provide it, reneging at the last minute at times. Instances cited by parents tell the sad story of children being stranded at Arunodaya till late in the afternoon and parents being called to pick up their kids.

In addition, if you feel that the facilities are not up to the mark within one week of admission and propose to withdraw your child, the school remits just the measly security deposit, pocketing as high as Rs 2,500 for the week the child has spent there.

What is unnerving is the fact that no longer do the administrators of the schools feel that running such an establishment is a noble cause. Money is essentially a major criterion, which is the root cause for the mushrooming of such playschools.

Another very sad feature is the fact that despite the acknowledgment by most psychologists that these young years are the most important for a child's overall development, nothing is actually done to see that the child's environment is made congenial for good growth.

Being run from houses that are damp and dingy, kids, who normally like to play in the sand and run all over the place, are moved from their cooped up homes to go to a school that is even more cramped. What is even more frightening is the fact that this scenario is only going to get worse.

Meet Rhubab and Harsh Singh, who recently put their child in the famous up-market school, Shriram. "Well, we did have to go in for an interview there, but the child was not taken away for a separate interview. We were all there together, unlike the experience we had at Mirambika's," says Rhubab.

The couple had earlier put their child in Play House at Tughlak Road. "I do not think that the charges were so phenomenal. I remember having paid onlyabout Rs 2,000 as the initial admission fee and another Rs 500 per month," she says.

But she still remembers the Mirambika interview with horror. "First the parents were interviewed, which was followed by a group discussion amongst many parents. Only if we passed that would the child be admitted. As expected, we failed," she says.

The admission fee in Shriram was, of course, much more. "We paid an initial amount of Rs 14,000 (which has now gone up to Rs 18,000) and pay a quarterly fee of Rs 5,000. Yearly also, the price tag is approximately Rs 7,000," says Rhubab.

As regards play schools, she maintains that unlike the Tughlak Road Play House, she had heard that other schools in the vicinity did charge phenomenal fees.

According to Shriram School's Sonya, "We do not interview either the parents or the child." As regards the fee structure, she said that they felt they charged according to the services they rendered. "We do feel that we are overcharging," Sonya maintained.