Fees not paid,school expels students,takes them back after protest

Ghaziabad District Magistrate R Ramesh Kumar said,“They (school authorities) should roll back the notices and abide by the High Court ruling on the matter.”

According to the protesting parents,the school announced in March 2009 that it would increase fees and annual charges by almost 40 per cent for the 2009-2010 session. This came after a 28-per cent increase in fees in the 2008-09 session,the parents said.

During the hike for ’08-09 session,the school had assured parents that there will be no hike in 2009-2010,Samir Kapoor,member of Khaitan Public School Parent-Teacher Association (PTA),said. “But they announced a 42-per cent hike last March.”

From Rs 31,000 in 2008-09,the fees would go up to Rs 43,800,he said.

But school authorities said a few parents who had not paid the dues were holding the school at ransom. The school’s chairman,Anirudh Khaitan,said the school had to increase fees as it was running into losses. “We didn’t increase fees from 2003 to 2008,barring a collective marginal increase of maybe 4 or 5 per cent,” he said. “In 2008,we upgraded the school and increased the fees.

“But salaries and real estate prices went up in the interim. In 2009,the Sixth Pay Commission came and we had to increase fees by 40 per cent. We said we won’t increase fees in 2010-2011.”

Of the 800 parents,Khaitan said only about 100 were agitating outside the school and held up the staff,including the principal,for more than 16 hours till 2.30 am Wednesday.

“They asked for either expulsion notices or to agree to their terms,” Khaitan said. “At midnight,we issued expulsion letters for around 200 children — only 64 accepted the expulsion letter.”

The stir began on Tuesday morning,PTA member Kapoor said,when the school told the parents it would not release the report cards or hand over transfer certificates until they paid the revised fees for the third and fourth terms.

“They said they would suspend the children,” Kapoor said. “They didn’t give us the report card. We have had our children in the school for more than six years; we can’t afford it (shift children to another school) now.”

The issue of fee hike at Ghaziabad public schools is pending at the Allahabad High Court. The schools have got a stay on the government order of July 2009 that said committees must be formed at schools,and must include members PTA and the district administration besides the school management.

The school authorities said the expulsion notices were only on paper,under threat from parents. They said there was no physical expulsion.

On Wednesday evening,several parents were still protesting outside the school and said they were waiting for the school to issue an apology.