128 Delhi private schools to rollback ‘arbitrary’ fee hike

NEW DELHI: Around 128 private schools of the city, including some prominent ones, have decided to roll back their ‘arbitary’ fee hikes, an official at the chief minister’s office said.

The decision comes after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had issued directions to the schools to roll back their ‘arbitrary’ fee hike after receiving complaints.

The official said that with the roll-back decision, the government had delivered on its promise of keeping private school fees under check and the move will bring major relief to parents across the city.

On Kejriwal’s directive, the education department had in April this year sent notices to 195 private schools of the city and asked the school heads to roll ack their fee hike. In July this year Kejriwal had asked the directorate of education to submit a compliance report on whether the private schools had rolled back the fee hike as ordered by the government.

“Out of 195 private schools, 128 have informed the directorate of education that they are rolling back their hiked fees. The move will benefit 2.03 lakh students studying at these 128 schools. Remaining 67 private schools will soon be served showcause notices for not complying with the orders,” a government spokesperson said. He said that the government believes in the co-existence of private and the government schools but the arbitrary fee hike had been a cause of concern.

An official at the CM’S office said that the government in April issued directions to schools after being flooded with complaints from parents regarding “arbitrary” fee hike.

“Checking the arbitrary hike in school fees is one of the main promises of this government. It has been successful in not letting the schools increase their fees arbitrarily and in the past several schools had to return increased fees to the parents after government’s intervention,” the government official said. The official said that education minister Manish Sisodia would meet the representatives of all the 128 schools who had complied with the government’s directive and discuss how to take forward the education system in Delhi.