COVID-19 impact: Delhi government sealed two schools for hiking fees illegally

The Delhi government took a strict step against two schools for charging hiked fees.

The Delhi government took a strict step against the two schools for charging hiked fees. According to the reports, two branches of Apeejay School in Saket and Sheikh Sarai got sealed for charging hiked fees from students in violation of the directions issued by its education department.

The Directorate of Education (DoE), on April 18, directed all the private schools in Delhi not to increase their fees or revise the structure without seeking prior approval amid the COVID-19 lockdown. The Delhi government also asked the schools to charge only monthly tuition fee from the students during the prevailing difficult times. Earlier, the DoE already warned the schools of action under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, enforced in the city amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Recently, a few reports from reputed sources revealed that the DoE issued an order against Apeejay Schools, Saket and Sheikh Sarai, for illegally increasing the fee despite the government’s orders. According to the parents’ association, the school hiked the fee by 15-20% in April this year.

On May 4, deputy director education (south) Arvind Kumar in an order stated, “It’s been reported that the management of Apeejay School (Saket) and Apeejay School (Sheikh Sarai) are not complying with the directions issued by the education department and they are directions by the way of unauthorised fee hike.”

The DoE in its order said that it received a recommendation from the ADM (south) office for sealing the buildings of these two schools and lodging an FIR against the management of both the schools. The recommendations were later approved by the office of Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. Following this, the buildings were sealed by the DoE officials on Monday evening.

Saurabh Bhardwaj, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Greater Kailash, also tweeted about the sealing of the two branches of the school.

However, while addressing the media, the principals of both the branches denied all the charges and issued a statement saying, “ We have all requisite approvals from the DoE to charge the fee for the academic year 2019-20. We have certainly not forced or harassed our parents to pay the fee. In fact, we held out a helping hand to those in need, with scholarships. Almost 100% of parents of Apeejay School, Panchsheel Park, have paid the academic year 2019-20 fee, voluntarily and a majority have also paid the present monthly tuition fee.”

They further added, “Almost all the parents are with us and understand the situation. Only a handful of parents have been complaining, motivated by vested interests. Unfortunately, the current force majeure situation has again prompted them to agitate on the fee issue.”

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