Government’s duty to protect interest of parents: CM Kejriwal

New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said that it is the government’s duty to protect the interest of parents and ensure that schools remain financially viable. The chief minister had on Thursday directed the Delhi government to take stern action against a school that increased its fees in the name of implementation of seventh pay commission. Mr Kejriwal also claimed that Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party government is the first government in history which stopped private schools from hiking fee illegitimately and it also forced some schools to refund illegitimate fee hike.

“First govt in history which has stopped pvt schools from hiking fee illegitimately n also forced some schools to rfund illegitimate fee hike. It is govt’s duty to protect interests of parents while also ensuring that schools remain financially viable (sic),” Mr Kejriwal said in a tweet.

The CM on Thursday asked the Directorate of Education to act against Bal Bharti Public School, which increased the fees by 10 per cent for 2017-18, over the previous academic session. Bal Bharti Public School has been asked to communicate to parents via a circular about the rejection of the increase in the fee structure.and pay salaries and allowances to teachers and other staffers from its savings. The government order said based on the analysis of financial statement of the school, it is having a surplus of fund of `11,08,35,825.

Issuing the order to the school management, the Delhi Education Directorate has asked the management to remove all financial and other irregularities or violations as listed in the order and submit the compliance report within 30 days.

Earlier in March, the Delhi government directed 575 private schools in the city to refund to parents the excess fees charged by them with nine per cent interest.

The order, issued by the Directorate of Education, was based on a committee constituted by the Delhi High Court for examining the records and accounts of “Unaided Recognised Private Schools” in respect of implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission.

A total of 1,169 Unaided Recognised Private Schools were examined from June 2016 to January 2018.

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