Tuition fee refund by private schools in Delhi: Full story by Akshay Marathe
Since Aam Aadmi Party formed the government in Delhi, I have been continuously reading news articles about steps taken by AAP to force private schools to return excess tuition fees. However, this is the first time around that some actual progress has been made in this direction. Headlines such as "Delhi Government Asks 575 Schools to Refund Excess Fees with 9% Interest Rate", always bring a smile to my face. This change has stopped arbitrary increase of tuition fees by private schools. Couple of schools were disaffiliated and some other were taken over by Delhi govt after complaints were made against them. While reading the news in bits and bytes, I was curious about the steps that led to this revolution. Recently I had a chance to connect with Akshay Marathe, an AAP volunteer who worked with Ex Education Minister's Advisor Atishi Marlena. Akshay explained the backstory to these recent developments.
How the Fight Started: The fight against tuition fee hike started somewhere around 1990s when a group of parents came together under the banner Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh. They approached the court to contest unacceptable tuition fee hikes by private schools which were not permitted by law. The law states that there are certain limitations on fee hike and the schools should submit their annual fee structure to the Director of Education (who is a government officer) before the beginning of the financial year. Schools violated the law and parents who approached Delhi High Court received a favourable judgement. The reason behind parents approaching High Court is explained in the next few paragraphs.
Violation of Guidelines: There are two bodies that govern schools in Delhi: 1) Delhi government (which enforces Delhi School Education Act (1973)) and 2) Delhi Development Authority (which signs the school allotment agreement). Whenever DDA allots land to a private school, they sign a lease agreement with a certain set of guidelines including a regulatory authority over the school. Schools are bound to follow the guidelines under the umbrella of Delhi School Education Act. In the past, when government authorities failed to implement these guidelines, problem of arbitrary increase in tuition fees began. With every pay commission, private schools started telling parents that school management needed to increase tuition fees to pay the salaries of teachers in accordance with the pay commission guidelines. They also highlighted extra expenses for constructing laboratories and other facilities at the beginning of each year. This seemed like a fair demand, but some schools started raising tuition fees to an unjustifiable extent. School management used the extra money left after payment of staff salaries to purchase land, villas, luxury cars etc.
Justice Duggal Committee: To protest, parents formed Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh and approached Delhi HC. High Court appointed the Justice Santosh Duggal Committee to solve the issue. The Directorate of Education and Govt of NCT accepted the Committee report in 1999 and it was government's responsibility to take action according to the committee report. However, the ruling government did not work on the report and the nexus between govt employees and private schools continued for years until Aam Aadmi Party came into power. All the regulations and notifications regarding tuition fee refund being implemented today are the results of Duggal Committee report submitted in 1999. The law says that if schools take fee for a certain purpose, its expenditure must also happen for the same purpose. A school cannot spend its excess tuition fee for anything else than the payment of staff salaries. Duggal Committee explicitly defined the term 'capital expenditure' which included things such as money spent on furniture, tables, fans, fixtures, etc.
Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee: Delhi High Court made another committee in 2011 under Justice Anil Dev Singh which provided some more recommendations. The committee went through school financial reports and certified whether the school was entitled to raise tuition fee or not. In the 9th report from Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee submitted in Dec 2015, recommendations for a total of 1066 schools were presented. Some articles that I came across based on AAP government circulars:
Aug 2017: Excess fee notice to 449 schools
Bill Failed: Earlier, whenever there was a violation of law by school managements, the Government could take two actions: 1) they could either revoke the school license after which the school had to stop functioning or 2) the Government could take over the school management. Issue with the first action is that the ones who suffer the most would be children, parents and teachers. Second option is also very impractical due to the limited manpower available with the Delhi Education Department. In May 2015, Delhi Government introduced a bill to regulate fees of private schools in Delhi. The bill introduced varying degrees of punishments for specific violations by schools which would further empower the government to take strict action against violations of law by school managements. However this bill was rejected by the higher executives of central government. Unfortunately, BJP ruled central government has been doing this with every other bill proposed by AAP government. As of today, the bill is not implemented.
The Fight: Every year when the Delhi Government issues a circular warning schools not to increase fees, these schools come together in a Union represented by famous lawyers such as Kapil Sibbal, Salman Khurshid etc. against the interests of parents. The reason behind the ability of private schools to increase tuition fees arbitrarily is the presence of a strong nexus between politicians, bureaucrats and private school managements. The politicians who were supposed to run government schools, are actually running their own private schools. As a result, it is in their own interests to run private schools and allow the condition of government schools to deteriorate so that the children move from government schools to private schools.
Parents have been fighting against this nexus between politicians and private schools for years but the recommendations were never implemented until AAP formed its government in Delhi. If any honest political party was elected in Delhi earlier then this situation could be improved and that is exactly what Aam Aadmi Party achieved after coming into power. With special status to NCT and different governing bodies, it has been a challenge for AAP to run the government as at each and every step they have to fight against the vested interests of politicians and some corrupt bureaucrats.
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Watch Full Video of Akshay Marathe:
This blog is co-authored with Kshitij Vengurlekar. You can also connect with Akshay Marathe on Twitter for regular updates from Delhi Govt and to ask questions related to Delhi Education reforms.
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