Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Jabalpur administration has issued orders to ten private schools in the city to refund Rs 69 crore to parents against unauthorised fee hikes. The order comes following parents’ complaint after several schools of the city violated fee hike limit of 10% fixed by the district administration. The order mandates Schools to refund the amount within a month.
Though the school managements has been given the opportunity to appeal to the state-level committee against the district-level committees' order. They have been given a 15-day window to file their appeal.
Currently, this action addresses only fee hikes. Investigations are ongoing regarding increases in uniform and course fees. If any irregularities are found, the schools will also have to return the excess money charged for uniforms and courses to the parents.
A new formula devised for calculating refunds
A new formula has been established to calculate the amount of money that has to be refunded. For example, if a school is charging Rs 30,000 per year for a nursery class, the administration has reduced the fee to Rs 21,000 per year. Thus, the school must refund Rs 9,000 (30,000 - 21,000) per student to the parents. This formula will apply to all classes.
Police, Admin and Ed. Department's combined efforts to crack down
Over the past month, the administration, education department, and police team have been investigating 11 private schools in the city. At the beginning of the action a month ago, the administration filed FIRs against 51 people from these 11 schools.
To date, 21 individuals, including chairpersons, principals, CEOs, managers, members, and advisors, have been arrested, while 30 remain at large.
