Parents protest outside DAV School, seek rollback of 15% fee hike

Ghaziabad: Distressed parents of several students from DAV School in Sahibabad staged a four-hour protest on Wednesday, demanding a rollback of an 11-15% fee hike they called “arbitrary”. They also blamed the management for overcrowding classrooms with up to 75 students, in violation of CBSE guidelines.Parents, many of whom had come to drop off kids, started gathering outside the school’s gate around 8 am and shouted slogans against the management after the school fees for the 2026-27 academic session were increased by 11-15%, allegedly without transparency or consultation.“For Class 6, the monthly fee has gone up from Rs 6,790 to Rs 7,460, while the late payment fine has jumped from Rs 250 per quarter to Rs 50 per day. An annual examination fee of Rs 7,500 is also being charged. In Class 9, students are required to pay Rs 7,500 each for CBSE registration and annual examination fees,” a parent said. For Classes 10 and 12, parents said schools are additionally charging Rs 450 per month towards practical examination fees.For the 2026-27 academic session, CBSE has officially capped the fee hike for private schools at 7.2%. This cap was determined based on the approved formula of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 5%.Another parent claimed that the school forces parents to buy books and stationery from its own vendor. “It violates District Fee Regulatory Committee (DFRC) rules, but repeated complaints were ignored by the administration, leaving us with no option but to protest,” the parent said.Protesters claimed the school’s fee counter operated for only a limited period between 8.30 am and 10 am, leading to inconvenience for working parents. They also pointed out that heavy penalties are levied by the school administration for even a minor delay in payment. “Late fine is collected at Rs 50 per day. It feels more like a penalty system than an educational institution,” another parent said.Parents flagged a high teacher-to-student ratio, inadequate sanitation, harassment of students over minor infractions, and the lack of a grievance redressal mechanism. They blamed the school for conducting multiple unit tests on a single day, causing mental harassment to students.“There are nearly 70 to 75 students per class. Our children are packed into classrooms with no space to learn properly. This directly affects their education,” a parent said. CBSE mandates a maximum pupil-teacher ratio of 30:1.Vivek Tyagi, president of All Parents’ Association in Ghaziabad, said the association has written several times to the education officials, but no step has been taken.The DAV School administration told TOI the demands were being addressed and that it would hold talks with parents to resolve the matter.Across Delhi-NCR, there have been multiple protests against private schools, including Delhi Public School (DPS) in Dwarka, over arbitrary fee hikes and alleged coercive actions to recover “unapproved” increased fees.