Aam Aadmi Party MLAs today lauded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia's efforts to prevent private schools from charging excess fees from parents.
The Delhi government has proposed three education bills - 'Delhi School (Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill', 'Delhi School Education (Amendment) Bill', 'The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Delhi Amendment) Bill', in the House.
Participating in the discussion, Health and Home Minister Satyendar Jain said that in last 25 years, the standard of education in government schools has deteriorated. It seems that it has happened to allegedly benefit private schools.
AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj said that in these bills, government has made a provision according to which private schools can not harass parents and government will have powers to prevent such schools from committing any wrongdoings.
He also said that the government-appointed committee will also audit accounts of private schools due to which government will get to know about the financial functioning of these schools.
These three bills have already been tabled in the Assembly and in the next one or two days, they are likely to be passed.
It can take penal action too, which includes ordering
refund of twice the amount of excess fee, imposing up to Rs 5 lakh fine for first offence, Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh fine for the second offence and cancellation of registration or affiliation of the school for the third offence.
The Bill also provides for Fee Revision Committee, to be chaired by a retired judge of the High Court. Schools can approach this committee for revision if they are not happy with the order issued by Fee Regulatory Committee, said Chudasama.
Orders passed by the Fee Revision Committee shall be final.
"Statement of Objects and Reasons" of the Bill says that since there is no law to fix the fees, schools charge exorbitant amounts, and to "mitigate the plight of the parents seeking admission for their wards in self-financed schools" this bill is being introduced.
