BHOPAL: In a significant action against private schools for “arbitrarily increasing fees,” authorities in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh, have ordered ten schools to refund a whopping Rs 69.19 crore-plus to parents which was collected by hiking tuition fees in violation of the existing law.
The district administration in Jabalpur has given the concerned ten schools one month time to return Rs 69,19,88,654 to parents of over 81,000 students, which was charged from them between 2018-19 and 2024-25 by charging extra tuition fees in violation of the MP School Fees Regulations Act 2017.
The order was issued against the ten schools after the district level committee set up under the 2017 law, examined their accounts. The audit revealed that schools had charged extra tuition fees by hiking the fees arbitrarily against the rules laid down in the 2017 law.
Under the existing law, the schools have to upload their annual audit report on their websites before initiating any fees hike, but the concerned schools failed to comply with it. As per the same law, any hike exceeding 5% should be reported to the district level committee.
Also, the over 10% hike in fees needs the district collector’s approval, while an increase of over 15% needs the clearance from the state level committee. None of these requirements were met by the ten schools. Furthermore, the schools are allowed to hike the fees maximum by 5% only when they’ve spent over 85% of their annual income. Similarly the extent of school expenditure is determined under the law for increasing the fees by 10% and 15%.
Audit report
The order was issued against the ten schools after the district level committee set up under the 2017 law, examined their accounts. The audit revealed that schools had charged extra tuition fees by hiking fees arbitrarily which was against the rules. Schools have to upload their annual audit report on their websites as per law