Gurgaon: Now, parents demand rollback of fee hike by another city school

More than 30 parents of children studying in Delhi Public School Ghaziabad (DPSG), Palam Vihar, on Monday demanded a rollback of the recent fee hike in the school and asked for action against the school authorities for not following a rule of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

The group of parents met the district the district education officer and additional deputy commissioner seeking intervention in the matter. They said the school has been asked them to pay four times the current fee.

“The fee hike by the management is not reasonable. We have been protesting for a week now and have been unable to get any relief,” said Dev Kumar, a parent.

Another parent, Arun Dua, said, “People who have two children are the worst affected. There is lack of a regulatory body to check fee hike by private schools. We have been paying Rs65,000 every year, but according to the new fee structure, we will have to pay R1.62 lakh.”

“We have requested the government to ask the school management to roll back the new fee structure,” said Shweta Soni, another parent.

Parents also alleged that the school authority has not followed rule 11, part 6 of the RTE Act, 2011, which states that before revising their fee, schools have to get it approved by the commissioner, the state education department and inform the district education officer.

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After discussing the grievances with the parents and the school management, additional district commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh, said, “We can take action only after we get clarity after the upcoming meeting in Panchkula.”

With many parents protesting fee hikes by private schools, PK Das, additional chief secretary (school education), has called a meeting in Panchkula on April 5 regarding fees and fund of private schools in Hisar, Ambala, Rohtak and Gurgaon.

District education officer Neelam Bhandari too said that they have looked into all the aspects and will take a call only after April 5.

On its part, the school administration maintained that the increase in fee is not unreasonable. “We have a new school and we are in the process of developing it. We have already discussed the hike with parents,” said NB Pandey, a school representative present at the meeting.