Private school rolls back fee hike after Kejriwal's intervention

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has successfully rolled back the fees hiked by a private school in Delhi yet again. The Queen Mary's School, Northend, Model Town III has rolled back its fees after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal intervened. The Chief Minister received complaints of arbitrary fee hike by the school during his Janta Samvad.

"Parents complained to the CM against Queen Mary's Public School, Model Town III, that they have arbitrarily hiked the school fee. The government took a strong note of the complaints of arbitrary fee hike in violation of the judgement of the Supreme Court and High Court and also the directions of the education department," said an official.

He added that taking action against the private school, the education department directed them to immediately roll back the fee hike in the school and refund the increased fee to the parents/guardians of the students with immediate effect otherwise the government will take action. In response to the government notice, the school said, "Your good self is hereby informed that school has rolled back the proposed provisional fee hike for the session 2018-19 as per your above-mentioned order and it is also to inform that the excess amount if any will be refunded or adjusted to the fee accounts of the respective students immediately."

Reacting to the roll-back of fees by the school, Ruchi Jain, who was one of the complainants, said, "We are very happy on the development. This has further cemented our trust in the government and the Chief Minister. I wish they keep working the way they are working for the betterment of education."

"I had never thought that meeting the Chief Minister would be so easy, he is so approachable. We met him at his residence during Janta Samvad,"she added.

An official of the government said, "This rollback comes in continuation with several private schools falling in line after the education department, on the CM's directions, took strong steps against them. Private schools were sent notices against violation of norms like arbitrary fee hike and non-disbursal of books, stationery and uniforms to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category students."