Schools had been demanding a 50 per cent hike in tuition fees to meet the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations on increasing teachers’ salaries and paying arrears.

The S C Bansal Committee, constituted in October last year to look into the fee hike issue, submitted its report to the government earlier this month. As per the committee’s recommendations, schools are allowed to hike fees from Rs 100 to a maximum of Rs 500, depending on the current fee slab they fall under.

Schools, however, have protested the decision, saying the cap would create a financial deficit and it would be impossible to pay the staff their dues.

Yet another blow is the government’s directive to schools not to increase any other fee till March 2010. According to the government, the 10 per cent hike allowed to schools at the beginning of each academic year now stands cancelled for 2009. This, the schools say, is against Section 17(3) of the Delhi Education Act.

“We have not ruled out moving the court,” S K Bhattacharya, president, School Action Committee (SAC), a body representing all private schools in the Capital, said.

“Around 90 per cent schools are finding it difficult to meet expenses alone, forget about arrears.”

A notification on the government’s decision will be sent by the end of the week or early next week to the schools, according to Education Secretary Rina Ray, who added the slabs were constituted after extensive consultation with the schools. “We gave every school an opportunity to put in their comments. We carried out an independent survey, checked the student-teacher ratio, tuition fees and then correlated it,” Ray said. With private schools saying they might move the court and ask the Bansal Committee to explain the logic behind the cap, Ray said schools should approach the government with their grievances first.

“We have a chartered accountant here and can review it on a case-by-case basis,” she said. “We are telling schools to exhaust all mechanisms before they take extreme action.”

Ray also said the notification details that students of Classes X and XII should be kept out of the purview of the fee hike and not be penalised, as was the case at a Gurgaon school which announced that it would not hand over transfer certificates to Class XII students until they pay arrears and the revised fee. A bill amounting to Rs 23,000 in arrears was sent to the parents in this regard. No such instance would happen in Delhi, Ray said.