While students from other classes have been given time till October (see box) to pay the pending fees in installments, parents of students taking Board exams will not get the same benefit, the notification clarifies.

“We made this change because students will no longer be there (in schools) to pay the pending tuition fee after March,” Director (Education) Chandra Bhushan Kumar told Newsline. “But it does not mean schools will be allowed to harass students by threatening to withhold their admit cards.”

The government had allowed private schools to raise monthly tuition fees between Rs 100 and Rs 500 to let schools implement the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, which has sought higher pay for staff. This means parents will have to shell out between Rs 700 and Rs 3,500, depending on the category of the school — as tuition fee arrears from September 2008 till this March.

Welcoming the move, S K Bhattacharya of the Action Committee for Unaided Private Schools said, “It is good that the DoE has considered the practical problems facing schools. Once the students are through with Board exams, they will not return to pay the fee.

“At least we will get the arrears this way.”

Parents, though, are not too pleased for obvious reasons. Lawyer Ashok Agarwal, legal counsel for the Delhi Abhibhavak Manch which is fighting the government’s decision to let schools raise fees, blamed the government for “sitting back” and letting schools “harass” students. “We will have to move court now because the government is not helping parents at all,” he said. 

In another notification issued today, the DoE declared that students admitted to any private school in 2007-08 academic session will have to pay only two-third of the arrear amount for salary of teachers, and those admitted in 2008-09 will have to pay only one-third the arrear.

“They are not liable for salary payments since January 2006 because these children were not in school at that time,” Kumar said.

Three installments for others
The circular posted on the DoE website states: “It is brought to the notice of all recognised unaided private schools that parents of children, other than those studying in class X and XII, shall be allowed to deposit the arrears on account of tuition fee effective from September 1, 2008 and the consequent 15% hike in development fee in three equal installments: by March 31, July 31, and October 31, 2009 respectively.”