Haryana schools hike fee by 100 per cent'

New Delhi: Parents seeking nursery admission for their toddlers in schools of Haryana have alleged few schools of increasing their fees by 100 per cent even as there is no official regulatory body in the state unlike Delhi to control the fee hike.

According to the parents’ association of Delhi Public School (DPS) Faridabad, while the school has increased around 100 per cent fee for new admission in nursery, approximately 33 per cent fee has been increased for all students in the last three years. Following the illegal fee hike in the school, parents even went on a hunger strike last week as part of their protest. They have also written to the principal secretary, local Haryana MP, CBSE, education minister of both the state and Centre, but to no avail.

The agitated parents believe that the schools have found a lucrative way of churning money by selling books, uniforms, and stationary items in the school premises but they don’t provide the parents with tax paid bills.

“Most of the transactions are made in cash. Various DPS schools, which are all administrated by the DPS society, have revised their fee but only DPS Faridabad is not revising its fee even after so many requests and protests by parents. As per the audited balance sheet of the school already submitted to the high court of Haryana and Punjab, it is quite visible that the school holds a surplus fund to the tune of 100 crore,” said the parents’ association.

According to Sumit Vohra, founder of admissionsnursery.com, an online forum for parents, they have been receiving maximum complaints against some Haryana schools for increasing the nursery fee by 100 per cent due to the absence of any regulatory body.  “Fee hike is now a burning issue across India from Mumbai to Haryana. We have been receiving complaints by parents’ associations including DPS Faridabad, Manav Rachna, and Eicher School in Faridabad along with other schools in Gurgaon.

“Just like Delhi, the Haryana government and education department should also make a regulatory body to control the fee hike and other issues like fee refund policy, nursery admissions and admission criteria,” said Mr Vohra as many schools are screening the children and parents openly. Everything is according to the school’s whims and fancies,” Mr Vohra said.