Parents protest school fee hike

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 14

Parents of children of a private school in Pitampura on Sunday staged a protest along with MLA Bandana Kumari against fee hike. 

Despite the directions issued by the Directorate of Education, some schools were disobeying the orders and asking hefty charges from the schoolchildren.

MC Gupta, whose two children studied in Sachdeva Public School in classes VI and X, said, “We are very disappointed with the school authority. Every now and then they come up with new rules. Now they have increased the fee and asking for the arrear. If we fail to pay the arrears, the authority says it will withhold the roll numbers for the students of classes X and XII.”

“My son is studying in this school for the past 11 years and for his Class X board exams I have to pay the arrears for the past 11 years. The authority never mentioned this earlier. They asked me to pay the charges or he won’t be able to take his exams. The authority is blackmailing us in the name of board exams,” he said.

They charge Rs 300 per student every month for the smart classes, but the classes are conducted only once or twice in a month, alleged another parent whose daughter studied in Class VIII.

Teena Dhingra, whose child is in Class IX, said, “We also pay health hygiene safety charge which was not mentioned at the time of the admission. It’s the administration’s duty to maintain hygiene in the school. Why should we pay for that,” she asked.

She said they take development charges annually at the time of the admission and was fooling the parents. The parents apprised the AAP MLA of two other schools running under the same authority. The MLA assured the parents to take their matter with the government.