Ghaziabad: On the matter of sending legal notice to the parents by DPS Indirapuram, the District Inspector of Schools (DIOS) has taken cognizance and sent a legal notice to the school. The school had sent the legal notices to as many as 170 parents, claimed by DPS parents welfare association.
In the notice, the school had demanded the payment of hiked fee and asked an additional sum of Rs 5,500 from each parent as a “councel fee” incurred by the school.
“You are fighting against the parents that too on their own expense. How absurd and foolish this could be?” commented Shivani Jain, education activist and president of All Schools Parents Association (ASPA).
ASPA had also raised this matter to the district magistrate of Ghaziabad.
Besides, in the notice to the school, the DIOS has also sought answers on the allegation leveled by the parents that the school is denying admit cards to the students appearing for X and XII board exams whose parents have refused to pay illegally hiked fee.
“The parents are paying fees as decided by the District Fee Regulatory Committee (DFRC). The school is illegally forcing the parents to pay the fees which was not passed by the DFRC,” said Priyanka Rana, president of the DPS parents welfare association.
After Uttar Pradesh Self-Financed Independent Schools (Fee Regulation) Act, 2018, came into effect, it has become mandatory for all the private schools in UP to present their fee structure before DFRC and implement only after the approval of the committee. The DFRC is like a court for private schools having the power to charge the schools with penalty under the Self-Financed Independent Schools Fee Act.
In 2019, the DFRC had ordered the school to roll back the fee hike for the academic session of 2019-20 and penalised the school for Rs 1 lakh. The school challenged the order in the High Court and was able to take a stay on the penalty in May 2019. However, the court had upheld the order by DFRC of rolling back the hiked fees.
Despite that, few days ago, the school sent the legal notices to the parents forcing them to pay fees decided by the school when they chose to pay as per the DFRC's order.
“The school is harassing such children by holding admit cards, denying school sponsored education trips and in various other ways just to pressurise parents. This singaling out is criminal,” Rana alleged.
The school has been notorious in its conduct regarding taking means of harassment on children to force the parents to pay fee as decided by the school.
Some particular instances are:
- In 2018, the school had denied entry to six students over the same issue. The parents have been accusing the school of harassment and discrimination against the students.
- In October 2019, the parents' association had registered a complaint against the school in Indirapuram police station. They told CitySpidey that they only followed the DFRC's order.
CitySpidey contacted the school for their version but our calls and messages went unanswered.
-1580375483.jpeg "DPS Indirapuram students denied admit cards for no")
