NEW DELHI: Schools in the city have already started hiking their fees. Mount Carmel School in Anand Niketan is a case in point. The Directorate of Education (DoE) has received a complaint against the school for hiking the fees without government's approval.
The fee hike comes in response to private school's having to raise teacher's salaries to match the 6th Pay Commission scales implemented in government schools.
According to the complaint filed on Monday by Social Jurist, the school has asked students to pay the fees hiked by Rs 550 by January 23. Failing this, students of classes X and XII will not get their admit cards for the upcoming Board exams.
"The school has increased its fees by 30% and threatened the students of classes X and XII that their admit cards would be held back if they don't pay the arrears from January to April. We have asked the DoE to order the school to refund the hiked amount to the parents, who have already paid,'' said Ashok Agarwal from Social Jurist.
However, school principal V K Williams denied giving a deadline to the students, but confirmed that the parents had been given an open choice to either pay the hiked fee or stick to the old fee structure.
"We had sent three letters to the DoE to seek permission to increase the fees. We had to implement the 6th Pay Commission and couldn't let our teachers suffer. But when the government didn't reply even after two months, we informed the parents that they could choose to either keep a backlog and pay the amount later or start paying it right away.'' said Williams. He added that the school had to go ahead with the hike because the government was unnecessarily taking time to give their approval. "How long can schools wait? We have to pay our teachers at par with the government school teachers,'' he said.
"Schools have to decide on the quantum of hike before increasing fees. The government will take cognizance of any violation in this regard,'' said a senior DoE official. However, some schools have already started sending circulars to parents on the impending fee hike even before the sub-committee headed by education secretary Reena Ray submits its report on Bansal Committee's recommendations.
Shri Ram School, Vasant Vihar has issued a circular to the parents on the fee hike following which word spread that the school could face de-notification. But the school administration denied receiving any notice. Manju Bharat Ram, chairperson, Shri Ram Schools, clarified: "We have not received any notice. We have issued the circular to inform parents on the impending hike as we have to pay the arrears to the teachers in January and April. We are also waiting for the government's decision, but our hike won't be more then 50% despite a 50% hike in teachers' salaries.''
Meanwhile, Shri Ram School in Gurgaon has asked the parents to pay Rs 23,000 as arrears. "The branch lies in Haryana, which has no fee hike restrictions,'' added Ram.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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