“Delhi’s Education Fee Hike Inquiry: Vigilance Directorate’s Call for Accountability”

The Directorate of Vigilance of the Delhi government has asked the education department to explain the reason for the fee hike in some schools and how it was done. The directorate has pointed out that some schools are putting an unfair financial burden on parents by increasing fees on a selective basis. The education department needs to provide a clarification on this matter within a week. Additionally, the department has been asked to submit information on how many economically weaker section (EWS) quota admissions have been made in these schools.

In a letter to the education department, the vigilance directorate has highlighted the cases of 18 schools where the rules of fee hike and EWS admissions were being violated. The directorate has asked for clarification on the anomalies found in these schools, including how they were approved for fee hikes and why they are not filling 25% of their seats with EWS students.

The letter has suggested that the DDE (Education) has not been able to supervise the enforcement of these provisions, and there is a possibility that these schools have been expelling students from the EWS category from school despite the “no detention policy” under the Right To Education Act (2009).

The letter has also pointed out that the fee hike in several schools was allowed in violation of the rules, which states that the fees collected by the managing committee may be used for meeting capital or contingent expenditure provided that there is saving from the fee collected. The vigilance department has asked the education department to explain why the expenditure for capital in the schools was met from the fees collected itself.

The letter has further stated that out of 18 fee hike orders, 13 were allowed from retrospective effect, and in six of these 13 cases, the hike was allowed w.e.f. 01.04.2023, resulting in huge arrears of fees to be borne by the parents. The vigilance department has observed that there is no provision in the rules for retrospective hike to be allowed while dealing with the fee hike cases of schools.

The education department has been asked to provide details of fee hike cases from the 2019-2020 academic session till 2023-2024, with cases in which the fee hike was approved and the quantum of the fee hike. The vigilance department has also asked the department to provide information on the status of EWS quota from classes 1 to 8 along with the percentage of EWS students in each class. They have also asked for information about whether the EWS quota was implemented for admissions in the pre-school classes, along with their percentage. Lastly, they have asked for the status of EWS quota with the percentage of students in classes above class 8.