Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia Thursday said that private schools are not allowed to increase its fees without the permission from the Government.
Announcing the withdrawal of the earlier permission granted to the Sanskriti School, Sisodia said, “The Kejriwal Government will not bow down to any pressure. We are taking this decision based on some serious complaints received from the parents of the Sanskriti school, Chanakyapuri,” he said.
Sisodia said, “We have already received multiple complaints from parents regarding Sanskriti School doubling its fee. “The school increased its fees by almost 75 percent which is unacceptable. Therefore, after consultation with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, we are revoking the order issued for Sanskriti School regarding increasing the fee,” he said.
According to Sisodia, there were lapses found in the functioning of the Sanskriti School. He said, “Under the system called GAAP, it is necessary to follow a special system of accounting and audit but the Sanskriti School did not follow it. Also, there was no need to increase the fees as the school already had a surplus amount which they gained during 2017-18, due to which their proposal to increase the fee was rejected by the Delhi Government.”
“During the same year, we directed this school to pay the teachers under the Seventh Pay Commission from the surplus amount and not to put this burden on the students. But the school did not comply with this order,” he said.
The deputy chief minister further said, “A school gets permission for establishment only if it has a three-month salary fix deposit for the staff. Therefore, now the demand to increase the fees is unreasonable because that amount has already been deposited as a fixed deposit since the inception of the school,” he added.
“The Anil Dev Singh Committee constituted by the Delhi Government had recommended that fees arbitrarily increased by private schools from 2010 to 2012 should be refunded. Now, the school wants to recover this amount from the students by showing it under the school expenses. Whereas, the amount overcharged previously cannot be allowed to be shown as an expense.”
Sisodia said, “The school has not followed the Supreme Court order regarding depositing the development fund in a separate account.
“Parents have shared with me that they are under immense pressure to speak in favor of the school. The Kejriwal government will not bow down to any pressure,” he said.
Reacting to this, Delhi BJP President Adesh Gupta said that there are many prominent private schools, which have cut the names of children from online class due to non-payment of fees and removed their parents from the WhatsApp group.
“The Directorate of Education on August 30 had directed all private schools in Delhi not to refuse admission to online classes to students whose parents were unable to pay fees during lockdown. However, despite the instructions, private schools demanded tuition fees as well as other fees,” he said.