Manish Sisodia hails SC order on private school fee hike

New Delhi: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Monday termed the Supreme Court’s order on private schools as “historic” and warned that the city government will take strict action against those schools that don’t comply with the apex court’s judgment. Mr Sisodia, who also holds charge of the education department, said that private schools should focus on teaching students rather than making education a business.

Addressing a press conference, he said that there are several discrepancies in fee and admission process of private schools. He said that Delhi government wants them to get transparent in their admission processes and fee hikes. The deputy CM’s remarks came hours after the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the committee of private unaided schools, located on land allotted by DDA, challenging a Delhi high court order asking them to take government’s prior nod before hiking fees.

He said that private schools cannot harass parents in the name of fee and asserted that despite the SC’s order, if schools don’t follow rules, government has several tools to take strict action against them. He added that government will support fee hikes if the process is transparent and has proper rationale behind the move.

Mr Sisodia said that in 2004, the SC had also ordered private schools to comply with terms and conditions in their land allotment letters, but it was never implemented. “If they have some issues with the terms and conditions in their land allotment letters, they can return this land to government and we can run a good school,” he said.

He stated that in a recently conducted audit by the government appointed CAs, it was revealed that most private schools had surplus funds of up to Rs 5 crore. “If they have surplus funds, why is there a need to pile up money and harass parents? If they don’t have enough expenditure, why they are demanding to increase fees?

“We are not talking about closing private schools. We are not creating disturbance in the functioning of private schools, but if you (schools) have a pile up of Rs 5 crore, why are you charging exorbitant fees from the parents?” the deputy CM asked.

He also warned that if private schools think that they can take land worth crores of rupees from the government and then don’t follow terms and condition mentioned in the allotment letters, the government will not allow such schools to charge exorbitant fees. “This is a historic decision for those parents whose children are studying in private schools... I want to give them (schools) suggestion that government can cooperate with you, but you will have to be completely transparent in the fee process,” he said.

Mr Sisodia also said that the government is not asking private schools how much fee they should charge from parents, rather it is just asking them to take fee in lieu of what they have spent money on their expenditures. “During audit we got to know that many of the schools have diverted their funds. We have not allowed them to increase fees.140 schools have surplus funds. They have diverted their funds to their mother trusts and parallel trust. They have done irregularities. They should stop this. They should have some responsibilities towards parents and their children. Instead of focusing on earning money, they should focus on teaching students,” the deputy CM added.

He said that the government did not give land to these private schools to earn money. “If you (schools) support us, government will also support you, but if you continue to do irregularities, government will not support you,” he added.