Schools across India have been shut down due to the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Higher education regulators such as All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have directed all the technical institutes not to force students to pay the fee during the ongoing Coronavirus lockdown.
Education departments of many states have also directed schools not to hike tuition fee. But some reports suggest that some schools in Delhi have increased the fee by 10 to 30 per cent. They even misled the parents saying the government has allowed them to increase the fee.
Outlook spoke to Binay Bhushan, Director, Directorate of Education, Delhi government, who clarified that the state government hasn’t issued any direction to schools to hike fee. Excerpts:
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Q: Has Delhi government decided to increase the tuition fee charged by private schools?
No, we have not issued any such direction.
Q: Have you asked the schools to defer the fee as parents are facing a lot of financial hardships due to ongoing lockdown?
No, there is no direction to the schools in this regard also.
Q: Some schools have told parents that the Delhi govt has allowed them to enhance the fee by 10 per cent. Is it correct?
No, whenever we allow schools to do that, we will issue a proper order in this regard. We haven’t issued any such order.
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Q: Have you received complaints from the parents against the schools for increasing fee for the new session?
Yes, we have received complaints against two. When it came to our knowledge, we immediately issued notices to the schools.
Q: So have you asked them to withdraw the increased amount?
Yes, we have asked these two schools to respond to us how they have increased the fee without our permission. I don’t know what prompted them to send fee slips with increased demand to parents, but I can tell you that till the education department’s permission, no school can raise the fee.
Q: Some schools in Delhi were built on the Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) land which they got on the concession. Then there is another category of schools which didn’t get that benefit. Such schools are on privately-owned land. Is your direction applicable to both categories of schools?
Those schools which are on DDA land cannot increase any fee without our permission. However, as far as schools on privately-owned land are concerned, I don’t want to comment as certain matters are under litigation in court. Our stand is very clear for all the schools that they need our permission to increase the fee. But those who are not on DDA land have taken the matter to court. So we will have to wait to see what comes out.
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Q: Do you entertain complaints of every parent regardless of the school’s category?
Definitely. One of the two schools I have issued notice is not on DDA land. We have to address the concern of all parents. This is not the time to increase the fee as parents are under financial stress due to lockdown.
Q: But how do you respond to the school’s concern that they are also dependent on the fee collection to pay salaries of teachers and other staffs?
We are not telling schools that they should nor collect any fee. They can continue to demand the same fee which they charged previously. We have only stopped them from charging the enhanced fee. We will take up the school’s demand for fee enhancement after the lockdown gets over and the situation becomes normal. Till the time, they can charge what they have been charging in the previous years. But we will not allow the schools to pressurise parents unduly.
