Expelled by the DPS Society for pointing out its “irregularities”, its former president Salman Khurshid says the governing body for 11 Delhi Public Schools, and another 119 franchisee institutions, says “brand DPS” began to go off track with the franchise scheme.
The Congress leader, who moved the Delhi High Court following his expulsion on September 1, was the DPS Society president from 1993 to 2004. “It worked well when DPS began the franchise system in the 1960s with public sector units such BHEL and others. But the problem started when DPS went to the private sector,” Khurshid told Newsline.
Parents, he said, line up for DPS going by the institution’s name and reputation but the franchisee schools are “DPS only by name; they aren’t actually DPS”. To begin with, Khurshid said, the Society should “open its doors” to franchise schools and make them stakeholders.
Khurshid said he took up the cudgels on behalf of franchise schools after DPS Society’s recent decision to hike charges for lending its brand. Till now, the schools had to pay Rs 5 lakh upfront to DPS Society for inking the deal, and another Rs 5 lakh as annual charges.
According to Khurshid’s petition in High Court, the Society now plans to raise both amounts to Rs 25 lakh.
“I wrote to all 140 schools — they (franchise schools) were being short-changed by DPS Society. They had every right to be part of the society — a preserve till date of only 11 schools.”
The DPS Society’s rules make it clear that the elite league “reserves the right to decide about further extension and also the right to change management fee payable¿ to DPS Society.” At present, only 11 schools and their principals, besides illustrious names such as Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and author Khushwant Sigh among others, are its members.
DPS Society chairman Ashok Chandra refused to comment on the issue since it is sub-judice.
‘Big fraud’
But principal of a franchise DPS called it a “big fraud”: “I have to answer parents who admitted their children in our school only because it is a ‘DPS’. But when DPS Society suddenly asks me to cough up 25 lakh for initial registration and Rs 25 lakh as annual charges, and says this guarantees the DPS name for my school is for just nine months, it is a big fraud I am forced to commit against students and parents who trust us and the DPS brand.
“If DPS Society suddenly withdraws its name off my school, can you imagine what it will mean to hundreds of students enrolled here?”
Another principal said though the franchise schools are “DPS to everyone in the city, the fact is they are not DPS. And the DPS Society ensures this is never forgotten.”
But another principal of a prominent DPS said the model has worked just fine. “It is a unique way of taking DPS’s standards to other cities but not as clones,” the principal said. “DPS franchise schools, as some term them, developed keeping in mind local needs: school fees and recruiting teachers locally among other steps. But DPS Society ensures that standards are maintained and the academic quality is good.
“That is why there is a clause that allows DPS to withdraw its name from a school if standards are not maintained.”
Khurshid’s petition in HC:
“This is violation of the Delhi School Education Act and CBSE Affiliation Bylaws and misrepresentation to the public that franchise schools are DPS schools. Outside India, DPS has sold its name and logo to schools run by profit-making businesses in clear violation of laws — DPS Kuwait was recently sold for reportedly Rs 200 crore.
“All principals of DPS schools in Delhi have been given responsibility of up to 10 franchise schools and paid additional amounts for this.”
DPS: Going back in time
* In 1941 began Church High School, in President’s Estate
* It relocated with the new name — Delhi Public School — to Mathura Road in 1949
* The school initially operated in tents, under principal K C Khanna and vice-principal Din Dayal.
* DPS, RK Puram, began in 1972