Parents urge Chief Minister to act against spiraling fee increases in Delhi private schools

Parents, worried and upset, approached Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Monday, urging the government to step in urgently to check spiralling private school fees. Representing the Delhi Parents' Association and United Parents' Voice (UPV), a joint delegation was fuming with reported fee rule defiance and demanded the ultimate in government intervention.

In a formal statement, the chief minister assured parents that their grievances would be addressed and consultation with parents of different schools, the education minister, and senior officials of the education department would be started shortly.

The meeting was convened at the Delhi Secretariat as parents could not request the chief minister to receive them at her residence in Shalimar Bagh early in the morning owing to security arrangements. They were subsequently called to the Secretariat to conduct the meeting.

Parents brought up during the meeting that some private schools were disobeying guidelines from the Directorate of Education and bullying or coercing students and families for unpaid or inflated fees. They claimed students bullied or unfairly targeted in the process, and it is hard not to be suspicious of responsibility concerning how they are treated.

In addition to stopping discriminatory fee mechanisms, the parents further sought temporary suspension of any pending ordinances on school fee schemes in the near future. The parents sought transparency and participation, and in doing so, the government was forced to conduct consultations with stakeholders, particularly parents, before any mass-based policy reforms in school education.

The association requested the Delhi government to make sure that school fee regulations are implemented in a reasonable and fair manner, under proper monitoring, to guard the interest of children and parents.