Non-refundable fee policy in Gurgaon Schools....

Parents are worried over absence of refund policy

Nursery admissions for the next academic year have already begun in many private schools in the city. But the absence of a refund policy and lack of intervention from education authorities are putting parents in a tight spot.

Most private schools set the percentage of non-refundable fees between 45% and 50%. Unlike Delhi, where the share of refundable fee is decided by the education authorities, in Gurgaon, each school decides its own without much transparency. As a result, parents say they are losing money in cancellations.

In Delhi, if a child is withdrawn within one month of deposit of fees, the school can deduct admission fees/registration fees —both very low in Delhi as compared to Gurgaon — and one month's tuition fees, and it has to refund the balance amount within 15 days.

"Private schools in Gurgaon have created a monopoly charging by whatever they wish. It is very important for the government to intervene or else the parents will keep suffering the same way," said Jatin Gudwani, a parent who works with Castrol India. He suggested that the city's education department could a take a leaf out of Delhi's policy in these cases.

The state government also seems to have turned a deaf ear in the matter, which has been going on for more than five years now, said parents.

The absence of a refund policy becomes a bigger problem for parents because there is no set timeline for opening of school admissions. In Gurgaon, the admission process runs for four months, starting mid-July, and some sought-after schools either come up with results or open admissions in October. Hence, parents are in catch 22 situations as there is no uniform fee refund policy.

"My son got through in DPS Sushant Lok, and the school authorities asked us to make a payment of Rs 1 lakh. They told us they would refund only Rs 40,000 in case of cancellation. Anyway, we did not pay the money, hoping he will make it to some other school. But that hasn't happened either and now I am out of options," saidNeeta Saini, a parent and a teacher working with a government school.


source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Gurgaon parents protest hike in school fees

Parents of students in private schools of the city protested against the fees hike, on Sunday. As many as 200 parents gathered at Huda City Centre in the morning, demanding a rollback of the fees hike.

Parents alleged that schools are not adhering to the Haryana School Education Act 1995 & Rules 2003.Parents said they went on the protest as they are fed up with government apathy on the fee hike issue.

“We want compliance of CBSE affiliation norms by schools, more transparency in the audit process and better focus on parent-teacher associations and safety of children on campus,” Bharat Bhushan, a parent, said.

“For this academic session, there was a hike of 15%-17%; we had protested on the issue earlier and the school had rolled back 2%. The hike is not justified,” Pawan Diwan, a protesting parent, said.

Parents said they plan to approach the district education officials and obtain Form 6, which has the fee details and financials of the school. They will then approach the Fee and Fund Regulatory Committee and demand a fees audit, if irregularities are found.

Schools can charge fees under five different subheads -- admission fees, tuition fees, sports fees, people fund and science fund. “Schools have opened their own shops through which they sell items such as books and uniforms, at a premium, and never answer when we ask them to justify the overheads,” Anuj Chauhan, a parent, said.

Parents said they are upset with the state government for allowing at least four city schools to go ahead with the fees hike by staying an order of the Fee and Fund Regulatory Committee (FFRC). The FFRC had, on May 2, stayed any fees hike by schools until the final audit results were declared.

According to the rules, Haryana schools can charge tuition fees and 3 funds (Red Cross fund, child welfare fund & sports fund).

“Fees hike is a problem when parents are kept out of the decision making body. The PTA (parents teachers association) of a school is constituted at the order of the school, without allowing parents to select their representatives. Any parent who files a complaint with the school is never considered for the PTA body,” Harish Ahuja of Sector 27 said.

After several complaints by parents, a regulatory committee was formed last year to audit nine private schools, following an order by the Fee and Fund regulatory committee.

In February, an audit by the district administration found that four private schools in Gurgaon overcharging. The team had audited seven schools, of which four were found violating section 198 of Haryana State Education rules, which states that schools can only charge education fees.

The district education officer declined to comment, starting that the matter is being looked into by the state.

Colonel (retired) Pratap Singh, director of CCA School in Sector 4 and president of HPSC(Haryana progressive school conference) said, “Parents want to admit their children in the best schools, being fully aware of the fees structure, but after admissions, don’t want to pay. Hardly 10% of parents who have issues with the fees.”

source: www.hindustan.com

Withdrawal case? Get you hard-earned money refunded from school....

Case Study: Refund of fee in case of withdrawal of admission
Rule No. 13 (Page 4 of 11) of “FINAL ORDER OF DATED 24.11.2007 AFTER INCORPATING ALL AMMENDMENTS EVEN SUSEQUENT TO HON’BLE SUPREME COURT - ORDER DATED 14.12.07” clearly states that:

13. If any parent or guardian, after depositing the full fee for admission of a child, chooses to withdraw the child from the school within one month from the date of the admission, then the school may retain the Registration Charges, Admission Fee and the tuition fee for one month only, and shall refund all other amounts of fee or other charges.

i.e. Schools giving admissions to Pre-School and Pre-Primary for the session 2008-2009 can only deduct money charged towards:
• Full Registration Charges, and
• Full Admission Fee, and
• One Month Tuition Fee

… and rest of the money has to be refunded back to the parents if the application is withdrawn within one month from the date of admission.

What parents can do if school refuses to refund the money? Read them the Rule No. 13 of the order issued by DOE on 14.12.2007 (as above).

Some prominent schools have been telling parents that they will only refund some fixed ‘X’ amount because they have written it on their school gate on Jan, or published it in the prospectus or on website and so on, but Parents, please understand that DOE order is one such document that overrides all these stupid rules. Go and get your money back!

If anyone of you is facing difficulties in refund, please let us know (post a comment on blog or write me an e-mail if you would like to keep it confidential) and we will try to help you.

Delhi Nursery Admissions: Annoying issues! Who is responsible?

I've also noticed so many annoying issues for which i was really looking for a platform to share my views.

My first frustration is WE are made to buy the prospectus worth Rs. 250-800 each but still in that no school has given idea of its fee- structure. We are middle class people and have to do future planning for our investments in which child's monthly school expense will be counted. If I know in advance that a particular school will charge how much amount of fee it will be easy for us to take decision whether to apply in that school or not.

Second thing I think is that for all schools there should be a same date of declaring of lists so as to avoid confusion and submitting non refundable fees in 2-3 schools.

My third worry is the schools asking about the schooling of parents, what if the parents are well educated in post graduation and are in good jobs but hail from Govt. schools, as in our time education was the priority not the school name. I think schools should not ask parents this question in their interaction.

Please share your views on this.