In a move that can possibly give more teeth to the Directorate of Education, the Delhi government has proposed amendments in the Education act under which erring schools who take capitation fees may be liable for a hefty fine 10 times the donation and "repeated offenders" may even face imprisonment.
Under the new Delhi Schools Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee Bill, schools will have to show greater accountability in fees accepted and money spent. Erring schools may attract hefty fine and repeated offenders may even be imprisoned for 3-5 years.
"It has been observed that several schools charge exorbitant fees and siphon it off for other purposes, say by giving loans to some trust at zero per cent interest or produce fake bills. This will now be looked by a committee headed by retired judge. The committee will also empanel some 400-500 Chartered Accountants who will go through the accounts of the schools.
"If they find any irregularity, they can direct the school to either refund the money or reduce the fees the next year," Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today.
He said while the government favoured auditing of accounts which can put an end to the siphoning of the money, it did not want to "interfere" in amount spent by the school.
"We are not regulating the fees. We are only verifying the accounts," Kejriwal said, adding that the accounts submitted by the schools to the Directorate of Education will be put online.
The Cabinet yesterday cleared amendments in The Delhi School Education Act 1973 which scrapped the process of interviews at the nursery and other entry levels. More importantly, those taking donations or capitation will be fined Rs 5 lakh or 10 times the donation taken (whichever is more) as per the proposed amendment.
The Delhi School Education Amendment Act and the Delhi Schools Verification of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee Bill will be introduced in the Winter Session of the Assembly.
As per the proposed amendment in the DSEAA, offenders can be levied penalty of different grades for taking interviews at the entry levels including the nursery admission and charging capitation fees. Under this offenders will be liable for a hefty punishment and repeated offenders may also be imprisoned ranging from 3-5 years.
"Earlier, the authorities only had the power to de-recognise the school. But that was not a viable option because this would mean staking the future of several students. Now with this amendments there are several grades of penalty that can be levied. So, the authorities will have a better mechanism to deal with erring schools," Kejriwal said.
(REOPENS DES 37)
The proposed amendment in the Delhi School Education Amendment Act includes doing away with the non-detention policy. Under the non-detention policy students are not failed. Kejriwal defended the policy saying it was "deleterious".
"The problem with this policy is that there is neither any continuous assessment nor annual assessment in it. We have seen that students do miserably when they reach IX standard and later fail. Also, there is no accountability on the part of teachers under this policy," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the Education portfolio, said.
Kejriwal also defended the government's move of reducing 25 per cent of syllabus as this will put an end to the "mugging up" attitude and also relieve students of some pressure.
The Chief Minister said the government is also working on to make the admission process of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) online which can make it more transparent. The government is also tying with the NGOs to ensure that students from EWS don't feel neglected while studying with their classmates.
"We are also working on a plan under which whatever fees the schools levy, a part of it should be dedicated for salary. This will ensure teachers will get salaries on par with those teaching in government schools," Kejriwal said, adding only Delhi and Punjab have the policy that teachers in private schools will be paid at par with those in government sector.
