Gautam Budh Nagar Parents’ Association held a signature campaign against a number of Noida and Greater Noida schools for the repeated and arbitrary hike in school fees.
The campaign took place at the Noida Sector 35 community centre and was attended by parents whose children studied in schools including DPS Gautam Budh Nagar, Khaitan Public School and Apeejay School. NP Singh, president of FONRWA, also pledged the association his full support.
At the meeting, the association sought the parents’ opinion on the way forward with the problem. Parents spoke about the misrepresentation of funds and extortion by school authorities in the form of unjustified fee hikes. Parents also expressed their anger at how schools took advantage of parents’ concern for their children’s education to make them pay up.
Muzaffar Hassan, a retired principal and employee of the CBSE who attended the meeting, said almost 99 per cent of private schools affiliated to the CBSE used fraudulent means to extort money from parents.
Gajendra Singh, a parent, said that all parents should come together and fight the problem in a unified way.
Niti Shrivastava, president of the parents’ association, said they would continue peaceful protests and take to social media to spread awareness of the issue. “We will seek the support of social organisations and political parties to add impetus to the movement,” she added.
Parents also met NP Singh, district magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar, who assured them their problems woule be addressed.