AUDITING OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS UNDERWAY IN DELHI

• AUDITING OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS UNDERWAY IN DELHI
• Delhi Government undertakes the initiative to rein in fee hike

Fulfilling its promise of reforming school education and in a bid to end arbitrary fee hikes, the Delhi Government has initiated the investigation of accounts of private unaided recognised schools which have submitted proposals to the Department of Education to hike tuition fees.

The exercise will be conducted by the empanelled chartered accountancy firm, under the Ernst&Young Foundation, and the report will be submitted to the Delhi Government in the second week of August. The Department of Education has already received 97 proposals from various schools for increasing fees.

Addressing the chartered accountants at an interaction on Tuesday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “Education is a top priority for the Delhi Government and our objective is to ensure that education is not commercialised and parents and students are not exploited by a few unscrupulous private managements.”

The CM termed the exercise as “an investigation” and not “an audit”. Calling a “pioneering effort” Mr Kejriwal said, “I hope this exercise will benefit citizens of Delhi and give new direction to the nation.”

Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia sought to clarify that the state government did not want to control private schools but only wanted the schools to abide by the directives of the Department of Education. According to Mr Sisodia, schools that were allotted land at concessional rates cannot raise rate of tuition fee without prior sanction of the Director of Education. The Delhi High Court in its order of January 19, 2016 too, stated that unaided schools cannot flout the law.

“Our government believes that education is a service. It should not be a business activity,” Mr Sisodia added. “Those who wish to do business should choose some other field besides education,” he added.
The audit which will began today will include review of financial statements of the unaided schools for the FY2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016, identifying cases of misappropriation or diversion of funds including field visits to the schools.