NEW DELHI: Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday asserted the AAP government will not allow schools turn into “profit-making systems”.
While highlighting that there are 80 schools, which are built on DDA land, currently under scrutiny for proposal to increase fee, Sisodia said, the proposal by the remaining schools to hike the fee is unjustified.
According to the government, of the 325 schools established on the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land, 260 schools sent the proposal to the government to hike school fee after necessary sanctions.
“After our scrutiny of the accounts of these schools, we found that 150 schools had surplus money even after implementing salaries for teachers as per the Seventh Pay Commission. There is no need to hike the fee. Hence, they were rejected,” said Sisodia.
The Delhi government, through a circular issued on April 13, 2018, had restrained private unaided schools built on government land from hiking tuition fees without the approval of the Directorate of Education (DoE).
“The reasons behind this restriction are two-fold. First, these schools are situated on land allotted by the DDA and, therefore, bearing certain societal obligations. The government is also against the exploitation of parents and students due to higher fee structure,” said Sisodia.
“A school in Vasant Kunj has `40 crore in surplus. Similarly, a well known school in Dwarka has `35 crore. These schools applied for fee hike… How does this make sense? We are not against autonomy of the private schools, but the government will not let schools turn into profit-making system.”
The Deputy Chief Minister added that the proposals of remaining schools are under consideration. As the matter is in the Delhi High Court, Sisodia refrained from sharing names of the schools which are asking for “unjustified” hike of school fee.
The education minister’s statements found support from parents such as Gaurav Bhatia, who has a child studying in a school in Kailash Colony in standard fifth. “The school where my children study the administration has increased the fee by 15 per cent without any explanation for one quarter. Fee jumped from `19,000 to `29,000. They do it in such an intimidating way,” he said.