The Arvind Kejriwal government will audit financial accounts of all private schools in Delhi. It will audit 1,700 private schools across the city. This decision comes in the wake of the Delhi High Court putting a stay on the government circular, which had, as an interim measure, allowed schools to increase their fees by up to 15%, according to reports. The decision was taken yesterday in a meeting attended by CM Arvind Kejriwal, Education Minister Sisodia among others. Notably, last year, the Delhi government had audited the accounts of 150 schools built on government land after they had made a proposal to increase the fees.
“This time, the accounts of all private schools will be audited. During our last audit, we had found that the schools were siphoning off funds to the parent trust and in the name of development fee, they were constructing school buildings. Whereas the rule says that the money collected can be used only for the functioning of the school, furniture and equipment. We had received complaints from various quarters, following which this decision was taken,” said Atishi Marlena, advisor to Sisodia.
Earlier this year, the Delhi High Court was informed by the AAP Government that an enquiry was being conducted on the issue of fee hikes by a private city school, raised by about 600 parents of its students. The government said that after the enquiry is completed, a comprehensive report would be provided by its Directorate of Education (DoE) to the parents in six weeks. A bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Deepa Sharma disposed of the petition filed by the parents and granted them liberty to approach the court if they were aggrieved by the views of the DoE.
Last week, CM Kejriwal today warned Delhis private schools of “strongest action” for allegedly harassing parents by arbitrarily increasing fees to comply with the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission.
The warning came after reports suggested that private schools substantially increased their fees to comply with the seventh central pay commission (CPC) recommendations.
A CA under the supervision of the DoE will audit the accounts in the next three months. Private school principals said the government should complete the audit so that they can pay their teachers.