Today, hundreds of parents of students studying in Apeejay School in Sector-16A conducted a protest against the 27-per cent fee hike for the current academic session. For the last few days the parents have been staging protests against the fee hike and demanding it be rolled back.
On July 18, nearly 80 percent parents did not send their children to school as a mass-bunk protest against the fee hike. The hike, the parents allege, has been the highest in the last three years.
According to the parents, the school was supposed to implement the Fee Regulatory Adhiniyam approved by the Yogi government earlier in April this year. Under the ordinance a school cannot hike fee by more than seven to eight per cent in a year. “The question is why the school has been unable to implement this ordinance yet. What are challenges the management has been facing in implementing it? The answers to these questions should be publicly provided by the school management,” the parents said.
Sanjay Upadhyay, a parent, said that the parents are being charged for smart class, transport, extra-curricular activities and cultural activities while the school isn’t even providing AC buses for the students. “We are paying a huge amount to the school to educate our children but they are running the school as a pure business,” he added.
“Apeejay has a branch in Delhi as well where the fee is less by about 40 percent compared to the Noida branch. We have been demanding that a similar fee structure be followed in this branch as well,” added a parent.
When City Spidey tried to contact the principal and the school management over the phone the calls went unanswered.
