Despite the Government laying down strict guidelines regarding nursery admissions in the Capital, several schools are illegally charging hapless parents tens of thousands in fees up-front. Openly flouting admission norms some schools are forcing parents to pay huge sums of money in advance in order to get a seat reserved for their child.
According to a parent, Doon Public School, Paschim Vihar, has allegedly made calls to parents asking for huge sums of money in exchange for seats for their wards. Sharing his experience, Raman Singh a parent residing in West Delhi’s Tilak Nagar area said: “I was charged Rs 500 for the prospectus and after I submitted the form I received a call from Doon Public School asking me to deposit Rs 78,000 if I wanted to see my child’s name in the list of selected candidates.”
Just like Singh, several other parents are being harassed by schools asking for money illegally. They either have to pay the amount or abandon all hope of their child getting admission in that school. “I didn’t pursue the school after I was asked for this capitation fee,” Singh added.
Another parent seeking admission for his child in Indraprastha International School, Dwarka, revealed on the condition of anonymity that after being called by the school for document verification they were asked to deposit a sum of Rs 51,000 to reserve a seat for their child.
“These schools do not provide any acknowledgement slip in return for the payment made and hence are extracting money illegally,” he said.
Giving the broader picture, Sumit Vohra, founder of admissionsnursery.com said: “After management quota was scrapped, schools have found different ways to extract money. Schools are either asking parents to pay for booking a seat for their child in the first list or are going by first-come-first-serve basis and prioritising parents who pay in cash without asking for a receipt.”
On being asked whether a complaint has been lodged against erring schools in the grievance redressal mechanism initiated by former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, parents retorted that these helplines were an eyewash.
“I lodged a complaint against several schools like Doon Public School, Indraprastha International and St Mark’s Kindergarten in PaschimVihar for openly flouting norms but did not get any response from education officers. If any action was taken, the schools would have stopped, but nothing happened,” said Satvik Jain, another harried parent.