Several parents of students of a private school in south Delhi protested on Thursday alleging that the school has hiked the fee by 30% without consulting them. However, the school management said it is not obliged to take an approval from the Directorate of Education (DoE) to revise the fee as it functions on private land.

KR Mangalam School in Greater Kailash-2 witnessed chaotic scenes on Thursday when hundreds of parents entered the campus shouting slogans. Teachers also started sloganeering asking parents to “go out”. “The school did not inform us about the changes they made in the fee structure and hiked the fee by around ₹10,000 quarterly. They are also demanding arrears to pay the higher salaries under the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations,” a parent, who wished not to be named, said.

Parents alleged that the school hiked the fee despite the Delhi high court’s order against doing so. The court Monday extended till April 30 the stay on an earlier order that allowed private schools built on public land to raise their fee.

Replying to an email sent by HT, school principal Sangeeta Arora said, “It is informed that the order of high court pertains to schools that have come up on land allotted by the DDA or other government agencies. Our school is on private land.”

“The parents need to appreciate that school fee is the only source of income for a school. The increasing cost of administration, particularly on account of implementation of 7th pay commission or wage incremental factors like DA (twice a year), annual increment payable to staff, higher provision for gratuity on account of increase in salary and length of service, do necessitate a corresponding increase in fee,” Arora said.

A senior DoE official said schools functioning on private land are not obliged to take a sanction from the department to hike fee. “However, if we receive a complaint about a school changing its fee arbitrarily, then we can audit their accounts and intervene. We are yet to receive a complaint in this matter,” the official said.

First Published: Apr 12, 2019 13:59 IST