The online petition is named "End bullying kids for fees in private schools of Delhi-NCR".
Groups of parents who have been protesting against the repeated fee hikes and collection of annual and development charges by Presidium School, Indrapuram, have now taken to Change.org, an online petition platform. They are demanding that the authorities put a mechanism in place to regulate the fees charged by private schools.
The petition, named “End bullying kids for fees in private schools of Delhi-NCR”, which was initiated by a media house, is addressed to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, HRD Minister, Prakash Javadekar, Child Welfare Association and UP CM Yogi Adityanath.
The school had also recently issued transfer certificates to about 34 students in the middle of the academic session. It had maintained that the children would be re-included on the school rolls only if the parents paid the outstanding charges.
“The school is not allowing children to board the bus or enter the premises, despite having taken advance fees till September," said Sonali Puri, a parent. "The school management has been asking for annual and development charges, which are not legal as per CBSE by-laws. Children and their parents have been adequately harassed by these issues. However, despite at least 1,000 parents not having paid the additional charges, the management is targeting only a few children.”
“Many of these children have been excluded from classes and made to sit in the school’s reception, library or other deserted classrooms till the end of the school hours. The children are too young to understand the situation and do not know why this is happening. On some occasions, these children have been blatantly told that their parents have not paid the fees,” said Meenakshi Singh, another parent.
The distressed parents have been running from pillar to post to get their issues addressed. They have already approached the district administration, the UP education department and the District Inspector of Schools (DIOS). They have also pressed for an FIR against the school and raised demands in front of the Ghaziabad SSP. However, no outcome has been achieved.
Meanwhile, several groups of parents have taken their protest rally to the UP CM and demanded the formation of state laws to regulate fee hikes in schools. The CM has asked the parents to be patient and assured them that a committee is being formed, along with regulations to resolve the issues.
