Fee hike by private schools has nothing to do with 7th Pay Commission for teachers: Manish Sisodia

New Delhi [India], Apr 4 (ANI): Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday said that unjustified fee hike by some private schools has nothing to do with the implementation of 7th Pay Commission for the teachers working in these schools.
Addressing media persons here, Sisodia said that a false impression has been sought to be created by vested interests that the Delhi government is against the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission, which is completely baseless.
His observation comes in response to the Delhi High Court's recent order imposing an interim stay on fee hike till April 8 against a single-judge bench's order which had earlier allowed private unaided schools built on the government land to hike the fee.
Stressing that many private schools in Delhi attempted to arbitrarily revise the fee structure citing the 7th Pay Commission, Sisodia said: “Delhi government issued a circular on April 13, 2018, which had restrained private unaided schools built on the government land from hiking tuition fee without the approval of the Directorate of Education.”
“The circular directed the private schools to meet the additional financial resources required to implement the 7th Pay Commission recommendations from their surplus funds without hiking the fees,” he said.
Sisodia asserted that as per the law of the land, converting educational institutions to profitable entities is illegal.
"The reasons behind this restriction are two-fold, first these schools are situated in the land allotted by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and therefore bearing certain societal obligations and secondly the government is against the exploitation of parents and students due to a higher fee structure,” he said.
There are 325 private schools situated on the government land allotted by the DDA. Out of these, 260 schools had applied for fee hike, but 32 schools withdrew their applications.
During the audit of their accounts, it was found that nearly 150 schools had sufficient surplus funds to implement the 7th Pay Commission recommendations and were, therefore, denied the permission to hike the fee.
Underlying that there is a need to submit these documents to the court, Sisodia said: “Delhi government recognises the important role of the private schools in education in Delhi. The government is against extortion from the parents by the private schools in the name of fees.” (ANI)