DoE told to show info on hikes in private school fees

Times of India: New Delhi: Monday, 16 March 2015.

The directorate of education can't claim ignorance of fee increase in private schools anymore. In a recent order, the public grievances commission told DoE to produce minutes and other documents related to managing committee meetings on fee-increase at three unaided schools; the directorate's nominees are supposed to be present to ensure "compliance of instructions" in a 2010 circular on fee hike in recognized unaided schools.

This order can mean that private schools will find it harder to hide details on fees and also increase it without anyone knowing when or why .

The commission said that if records of the meetings aren't available with DoE, "there should be an effort to obtain the same from the school".

When RTI activist Mohit Goel had firstchecked, in case of several schools, DoE reported it didn't have records. The 2010 circular tells schools to place the proposal of an increase before the parent-teacher association (PTA) first, along with "detailed financial statement." The proposal goes to the managing committee only after the PTA clears it. Goel says he wanted to "understand if this system is working" and discovered it is not.

"I had first filed an RTI seeking information for all northwest schools (there are 13 school districts in Delhi)," explains Goel. "But I got vague replies."

This time, he picked just three --one minority institution, one standalone private school and a third belonging to a major chain. He asked DoE for names of the nominees, letters inviting them to managing committee meetings and whether "DoE nominees were satisfied that all terms and conditions...were fulfilled". He also asked them to "provide the detailed financial statement submitted to PTA " and whether PTA approval was taken. DoE shared the annual returns of the schools with Goel.

The DoE, with no records of its own, asked the schools; only one of the three--one of a chain--furnished information.The rest, despite "persistent efforts" from DoE to elicit information it should've had already , refused. The minority school and the unaided one had the same argument--RTI Act 2005 isn't applicable to them.