BENGALURU: Anxious parents are posting on discussion boards online about schools refusing to refund admission fees after withdrawal of the application.
A year after admitting his son to a school off Sarjapur Road, Manoj Thelakkat, CEO of an executive search firm, decided to put him in the school his daughter attended.
“I wanted both my children to go to the same school, but I couldn’t get a seat for him in the school she was studying in the previous year,” he says.
Everything was done, but the first school refused to refund the admission fee.
“I wrote to and called them repeatedly, without any response,” he says. “Then they asked me to get in touch with someone from the management, but he didn’t respond either.”
So Thelakkat looked up similar cases online and realised that several court rulings had upheld that the admission and tuition fee had to be refunded in full in such a situation.
“With this information and proof of my correspondence with the school, I approached them again, threatening to go to the court if they failed to refund the fees,” he says. “Over the next couple of months, it was done.”
This was two years ago, but the problem continues to plague parents and students. In the same year, the consumer forum directed New Horizon Public School, Indiranagar, to refund Suryanarayanan Nagarajan a fee of `98,975, with 6 per cent interest, and Rs 2,000 towards litigation.
Nagarajan had admitted his daughter to the school before she got into another.
A founding member of Consumer Rights Education Awareness Trust (CREAT) helped a parent who found himself in a similar situation last year.
“He (the father of the child) wrote to the school a couple of times, and so did I,” says Y G Muralidharan, also a member of the Central Consumer Protection Council. “But the school refused.”
So they approached the consumer forum which ruled in the father’s favour.
“Schools and colleges are considered service providers. Not refunding the fees falls under deficiency under the Consumer Protection Act,” he explains.
It is essential for parents to document the correspondence with the institution to be able to take the legal route, he counsels.
The Right to Education Act also specifies that parents or students can choose to switch institutions, says advocate G M Mohan, known for handling education-related cases.
“Even if it’s in the middle of the academic year — whether in school or college — students or parents are entitled to a refund. In this case, the amount for the number of months they have attended classes in is deducted,” he says.
However, very rarely do schools and colleges refund admission fees unless directed by a court, he observes. “One can approach the civil court as well, but going to the consumer forum is faster.”
Other Complaints
“We paid the admission fee and first term fee in January and now we wish to withdraw the application. The school is willing to refund only 50 per cent of the amount paid. What is the rationale behind holding back the first term fee? The academic year begins only in June.”
Posted this month on an online discussion thread
“I had my daughter admitted (LKG) in a school for 2016-2017. As my husband had to relocate for work, we will not be able to continue there. At the time of admission, we had signed a form that said fees once paid would not be refunded.”
Posted by a parent last month. A later post says she has agreed to a 75 per cent refund.