Jibran Nazir
Srinagar
Parents of the students studying in Delhi Public School (DPS) Srinagar Tuesday expressed deep resentment and anguish against the school management over the ‘unnecessary hike’ in fees and other charges.
Accusing the school management of flouting the norms, the parents’ association has submitted a plea to the fee regulating authority.
Pertinently, J&K High Court in its order in 2014 had directed all the schools of Valley (under JK BOSE and CBSE) not to hike fee or other charges till the ‘Fee Fixation Committee’ gives its consent for the same.
However, “The management of DPS Srinagar has been working arbitrarily without taking care of the sensitivities and sensibilities of parents who are main stakeholders in the School. Apart from academic issues, there are other issues where we seek your kind attention to redress our grievances,” reads the plea submitted to ‘Fee Fixation Committee’ by parents’ association.
The aggrieved parents said that the school has violated the norms and the fee was increased from March 2015 onwards.
“Moreover, the school has also demanded from parents to pay fees for Jan-Feb 2017 which more or less is nothing but extortion,” said Fayaz Ahmad Wani, one of the parents.
For the coming academic year, the school has asked to pay Rs 6,000 as printing charges in advance.
“The School has already informed the parents that the printing charges for academic year 2017 have been increased by 25%. The practice of increasing fee and printing charges is in vogue from the last 5 years by Rs 1000 every year. Though the students do not get the value of the money paid except for some photo copy pages, the charges of which may not exceed Rs 500 per year,” parents have complained in the plea.
“Even after paying Rs 6000 as printing charges, we are required to print almost 70% of the material including the syllabus and other assignments on our own,” Ms Seerat, another parent said.
The school also charges the transportation fee for the months of Jan-Feb, even when the school remains closed for winter vacations.
“This is also manifestation of exploitation and overcharging on the part of DPS Srinagar. This is being done for the past two academic sessions now and parents will have to pay the same for the Year 2017,” she added.
Adding to this, she said, “though, the school has reopened a couple of days ago, but the school administration has already directed the parents to pay the heating charges in total for the whole winter.”
Parents also allege that when they tried to bring up the issue with the school authorities, they responded in a very rude manner.
Despite repeated attempts, school authorities could not be contacted for comments.
