After issuing show-cause notices to 11 private schools for unfair fee hikes and irregularities in accounts, Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood on Thursday claimed a major victory against a top private school in Dwarka after a court ordered an inspection led by the District Magistrate. Sood said notices were issued to 11 schools after their accounts were inspected by Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) and prima facie there are signs of mismanagement.
“The court passed an order yesterday with regard to DPS Dwarka. This is how such matters should be handled — with facts and legal steps. Based on the committee’s reports, the DM had to inform the court to take over the management of DPS Dwarka,” Sood said.
Sood said a committee of district magistrates and sub-divisional magistrates was formed to inspect private schools in the capital, and based on their reports, the Delhi High Court pulled up a private school in Dwarka.
On Wednesday, the high court pulled up the Delhi Public School (DPS) in Dwarka for treating students with “indignity” over a fee dispute by confining them to a library and not allowing them to attend classes or interact with their peers.Justice Sachin Datta said the school, which was treating students like “chattel”, deserved to be shut down.
“We set up a committee of DMs and SDMs who conducted inspections in private schools and submitted their reports. The court made the observations based on those findings,” Sood said at a press conference.
While the issue of arbitrary fee hikes by private schools has been pending for the past five years, they are being addressed seriously only now after the BJP came to power in Delhi, Sood claimed.
“Earlier, private schools were given the opportunity to explain the fee hikes but they did not respond. Even the former chief minister ignored the matter. But now under the leadership of Rekha Gupta, we are taking action,” the minister said.
Stating that the administration is committed to stopping any kind of injustice, he said, “Those who mock our government by comparing it to ‘Phulera’s Panchayat’ should understand that governance requires strong political will, not just fancy words.
“The previous (AAP) government couldn’t take action for five years. But we have acted on reports from 600 schools in a short time. Show-cause notices have been issued to several schools. We are doing what they (AAP) failed to do.”
The high court on Wednesday also stressed on placing some safeguards to ensure that students at DPS Dwarka were not “tortured” by the authority, which was running the institution merely as a “money making machine”.
The court examined an inspection report by an eight-member committee led by the district magistrate (South-West), flagging several discriminatory practices against students amid the fee hike row.
The Delhi government on Wednesday inspected 600 private schools following complaints of unregulated fee hikes. Show-cause notices have already been issued to over 10 schools, officials said.
According to the Directorate of Education (DoE), district-level committees have been formed to look into the complaints.
The committees are headed by SDMs and include education department officials, accounts officers, and principals of government schools.They have been tasked with inspecting the private unaided schools, especially those named in the complaints.
