Friday, 2 June 2017

Fee hike: FFRC guidelines disappoint DPSG parents

Protesting parents of Delhi Public School Ghaziabad (DPSG), Palam Vihar, Gurgaon, are disappointed  with the guidelines issued by state government over the issue of fee hike between parents and the school management. Parents do not find any major change in the guidelines and allege that the guidelines are in favour of the school.

D Suresh, divisional commissioner (DC) and the chairman of Fee and Fund Regulatory Committee (FRCC), said, “The guidelines issued by the state government lay stress on transparency but it cannot interfere with the functioning of the school. Government has to make sure private schools in the city are not disturbed and are allowed to function properly in a clear manner.”

FFRC has laid stress on Form 6, which, according to it, should be mandatorily submitted to the education department, be clearly displayed on the notice boards and uploaded on website for the  parents.

The DC said, “Audits will be done regularly to check if the school is charging anything extra than that mentioned in Form 6. Strict action will be taken against the defaulters.”

Madhu Singh, a parent, said, “We had high hopes from FFRC. We waited for 15 days for some positive outcome, but now it seems that FFRC does not have any power and is unable to do anything for us parents.”

“FFRC is the biggest government body and we were very hopeful of some positive result. If we are not getting any justice then we will approach the high court. We will keep trying till the end,” said Amar Meena, another parent.

The FFRC is a committee formed by the state government and empowered to conduct an independent audit of the complete financials of private or un-aided schools against which a complaint is filed.

Parents claim that DC met the protesting parents on May 8 and said that DPSG has not submitted their Form 6 under Haryana school education rules, and so the school was not eligible to increase its fees.