In letters to the parents, the school cited reasons behind stopping them from attending the school. They cited non-payment of the fees as the reason.
The Delhi Public School (DPS) in Indirapuram restricted six of its students from entering the premise on Thursday morning. All the six students were stopped at the school gate. They were then taken to the reception and their parents were called to take them back to their homes.
In letters to the parents, the school cited non-payment of the fees as the reason behind stopping them from attending the school.
However, Shivani Jain, a member of the parents association, differed to the reason stated by school and alleged them of tweaking the truth. “The parents have only refused to pay the annual fee. The tuition fee and other charges were duly obliged,” Jain said.
She produced fee receipts of two of the students which showed that the fees of the last session were paid by the parents. “Joint Director of Education put out a zonal order in 2016 stating that any CBSE and ICSE school can’t charge the annual fee from students,” she further added.
Shivani said that the parents refused to comply with the demand of annual fee as per the order. She alleged that the students were cornered in school because they did not pay the annual fee.
She also claimed the school has been repetitively targeting these students. “The same kids were issued termination certificate from the school on the fee dispute. But, we fought with them and took the matter to DM. Then, the school was ordered to re-admit the kids,” Shivani said.
Shivani said that after the passage of the new ordinance in April which capped the fee hike, the school management has resorted to malpractices in fee structure calculation. This has led to a conflict and parents have decided to hold their wards fees till the school gets the approval of their proposed fee structure from District Fee Regulation Committee (DFRC).
“The ordinance was meant to control the fee hike but the new fee structure is costing us almost Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 more than previous one. They (school management) are tweaking the fee structure to garner more profits,” she said.
“We understand that fees are important for school’s operations. Hence, we offered them to take fees as per last session’s structure but they refused,” she added.
Shivani also informed that they wrote a letter to the district education officer and their issues have been notified by the authority. City Spidey has the letter in which the officer has intervened in the matter and ordered the school to not restrict entry of the kids on the issue of fees payment.
While it’s a fact that premier private institutions have been exploiting the parents in the name of various charges but it’s the kids who are suffering between the battle of parents and school.
Sangini Sharma, a class VI student, one of the kids who was stopped to enter the school, had to appear in the examination on Thursday. Still, she was refused entry into the school.
“There were two other kids from the same class of Sangini who had to appear in the examination but were not permitted to enter,” said Arushi Sharma, mother of Sangini.
Since last year, the school and parents have engaged in a tussle over the uncontrolled fee hike by school’s management.
In April, the UP government had passed Uttar Pradesh Swavitt Poshit Swatantra Vidyalaya (regulation of fees) Ordinance 2018 to control the unregulated fee hike by private institutions but in the absence of clear guidelines, schools are functioning at their own will.
City Spidey also approached the school’s principal Meeta Rai but she refused to comment on the matter. The calls made to the management went unanswered.
