NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will establish an exclusive "complaint centre" to deal with private schools. The hundreds of parents complaining against increase of school fees. The government has not given authorization to any school to increase fee and if any school has done it, "it is liable for government action."
The complaint centre will empower parents and members of the public to file grievances against the erring schools without any worry of their children being harassed by the private school managements.
The centre will be located at the education office of the New Delhi and central districts at room number 2, plot number 5 at Jhandelwalan. Parents can also email at doe.pvt@gmail.com. Till now, parents had been mailing directly to the Chief and Deputy Chief Ministers.
On Wednesday, about 150 parents had met Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia to complain about fee increase at Kalka Public School in Alaknanda. Parents with Kids in KR Mangalam World School in Vikaspuri have also put a petition together. However, they are not the only ones.
Lawyer, Somesh Arora says, "It is a great step by the government." It should have a team lead by someone with knowledge, experience in the field and advisors.
Lawyer-activist Khagesh Jha whose petition led to the high court order saying private schools on government land require prior sanction from government to increase fees.
The government should take care that complaints are resolved appropriately and in a timely manner. Especially in cases of fee increase, it is significant to dissolve the matter at the starting of academic session itself.
The department is not only for fee-related complaints. It is meant to usually check what the statement describes as "Arbitrary functioning of private schools. " It will also cater to the large scale complaints of parents and students about wrongdoings in the EWS admissions by private schools.