Notice issued to 12 schools in Delhi for arbitrary fee hike

New Delhi, April 8 (IANS) The Delhi government Wednesday issued show cause notices to 12 unaided public schools for taking arbitrary decisions on the issue of fee hike, a statement issued by the state government said.

'Keeping in view reported instances of arbitrary decisions by certain schools, the Directorate of Education today (Wednesday) issued show cause notices to 12 such schools,' said an official statement here.

Delhi government's Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely also directed all the deputy directors of education department to remain available in their respective offices to redress grievances of parents of this issue.

The schools have been demanding up to 50 percent tuition fee hike in order to implement the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations on teachers' salaries and arrears.

In January, the Delhi government created five slabs on the basis of the existing tuition fee in schools, allowing them a maximum fee hike of Rs.500.

However, since then parents have been protesting against the hike.

Lovely issued the direction while chairing a meeting of all the deputy directors. The parents would be able to meet them between 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on all working days.

The government has also requested parents to come forward to submit their complaints to the respective deputy directors, so that necessary action could be taken immediately without any delay.

The education minister also made it clear that no school would be allowed to hike fee without due approval by the general body of its parent teacher association in duly convened meeting.

'It has also been made clear that the schools would not be able to delete name of any student and deny issue of report card on the basis of alleged non submission of enhanced fee,' the official statement said.