Fee hike: Divisional commissioner orders Gurgaon schools to follow norms
The divisional commissioner of Gurgaon held a meeting with parents protesting fee hike by schools
Gurgaon Divisional commissioner D Suresh on Monday met parents of students from four schools and school representatives to discuss the matter of school fee hike.
He said that Delhi Public School Ghaziabad (DPSG) at Palam Vihar, and Vega School in Sector 48 have not submitted Form 6 under Haryana school education rules and so the schools were not eligible to increase their fee. Form 6 is a form to be submitted by a school with the education department within a stipulated time that also contains details of the fee the school charges.
Matters pertaining to Presidium School and Shiv Nadar School were also heard. Representatives of Shiv Nadar informed the divisional commissioner that the school submitted Form 6 twice — in December 2015 and March 2016 — and the fee was being charged as shown in the form.
The parents pointed out some confusion regarding the fee mentioned in point numbers 6 and 7 of the school’s Form 6. The divisional commissioner ordered for clarity to be sought from the education department and said it might take 15 to 30 days.
“The Fee and Fund Regulatory Committee (FFRC) has ordered an inquiry to ascertain the facts. There seem to be two versions of Form 6 submitted for the year 2016-17 and there shall be an investigation carried out by the relevant authorities to validate the authenticity,” said Vishesh Gaur, a parent from Shiv Nadar.
Bharat Bhushan Gogia, sub-divisional magistrate (north) and district education officer (DEO) Neelam Bhandari were also present in the meeting.
The meeting was held at the camp office of D Suresh. In the meeting, he also said that no school can punish students because there parents were protesting against fee hike. He directed the Vega school to seek affiliation and put its Form 6 in public domain so that parents are clear about the fee structure while deciding whether to admit their ward in the school.
The DPSG management requested the divisional commissioner not to order a rollback of their fee hike as they want to provide a good standard of education to students.
“We are awaiting the directions from D Suresh before deciding what to do next. We want to give our students a better education,” Sudhir Chitnis, senior administrator, DPSG said.
Parents are hopeful of some relief from the divisional commissioner as he is also the FFRC chairman and he discussed all issues affecting the parents.
“We are still hopeful that the authorities will consider our request and provide us relief from the unjustified fee hike. The school has increased the fees by 70% this year and we are not ready to pay the extra amount,” said Yashesh Yadav , a parent from DPSG.
The divisional commissioner has also marked an inquiry and the FFRC is to conduct an audit of all four schools for the years 2016-17 and 2017-18.
It was also decided in the meeting that the DEO and DEEO will submit their report to him in a week, which will also be shared with the parents.
