Parents say school ‘overcharging’: Kharghar school issues leaving certificate to 17 students over non-payment of fees

“The school has increased the fees by 51 per cent over the past two years even when there is a rule that schools can hike fees only once in two years with a maximum hike of 15 per cent. Schools weren’t allowed to hike fees during the coronavirus pandemic in 2019-20. But the Vishwajyot School kept increasing fees every year,” Bhagat told The Indian Express.

Sujit Soman’s son, a class 5 student, was sent a leaving certificate by the school authorities on email Monday. “During the pandemic, several parents lost their jobs or businesses. With no income source left, many were digging into savings. In such cases, the school should have helped but they have been hiking fees as per their whims and fancies. They even hiked fees during the pandemic,” Soman said.

The school, affiliated with Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, claimed that the action was initiated as the parents were intentionally not paying the fees. The fee hike, they claimed, was done following all rules and regulations unanimously approved by an executive committee of the Parent-Teacher Association.

“The admissions were cancelled as the parents refused to pay the fees. The action of cancellation of admission was taken in accordance with a court order and following the legal process,” Vikram Deshmukh, a representative of the school, said. “As a policy, we haven’t cancelled admission of class 10 student irrespective of the fee payment status,” he clarified, adding that the school also introduced Covid relief programme for parents in financial crisis due to lockdown.

Anuj Kumar Pandey, the vice-president of the All-India Federation of Parent Teachers Association, said, “There have been complaints from parents from all over the state (about arbitrary fee hikes) and there is a need that the government now intervenes and issues a notification in this regard, asking schools to follow the fee structure as per the Supreme Court’s directions for schools in Rajasthan in the wake of Covid-19 and online schooling.”

Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, meanwhile, has sent show-cause notices to five schools for allegedly not allowing students to attend online classes for non-payment of fees. An NMMC official said, “All the five schools are private and we have issued them show-cause notices and a few schools have replied to us. Their response is under scrutiny.”