A prominent private school in Delhi has demanded a hike in its fee in the middle of the academic year justifying it with their inability to pay salaries to their teachers.
In a letter to the parents, Veena Goel, principal of Apeejay School in Pitampura, stated that with no fee hike in the last three years, the school is currently charging as per the fee structure of 2016-2017.
“You will appreciate that the school was constrained to charge the fee as per fee structure of 2016-17, which has resulted in high deficit and paucity of funds. There is acute shortage which may now lead to withholding of salaries/paying of staff salaries in tranches, if we don’t charge the existing fee structure for the academic year 2019-20 from April 2019,” the letter said, reported The Indian Express.
In light of the turn of events, Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia said that the government is likely to take over the school or cancel its recognition among other measures
Apeejay is one of the 301 establishments in Delhi built on land that the government authorities, such as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), provided them at concessional rates. Such schools cannot implement any fee hike without prior permission from the Delhi government's Directorate of Education (DoE), as per the the established norms.
Therefore, the proposed fee hike can only be implemented after the department approves it and an audit of the school's accounts has been done.
Previously, the increased fee structure, which the school had proposed for the year 2017-2018, was dismissed by the DoE. Moreover, the school has said that its proposed fee for 2018-2019 and 2020 are still pending for approval with the DoE.
Parents have been asked to pay the supplementary fee in two installments - the first within 10 days of the receipt of the supplementary bill, and the second by 21 December.
The Delhi Parent's Association has pegged the hike to come around Rs 25,000 for each parent. They have also approached Sisodia against the school's decision.
(With inputs from The Indian Express)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)