Nagpur Bureau: After Narayana Vidyalayam, the state education department has named four more schools for charging excess fees from students to the tune of nearly Rs 13 crore.
Deputy director for school education Vaishali Jamdar directed Podar International (Besa), St Vincent Palloti (Jafar Nagar), Sandipani (Hazaripahad) and one more at Hiwri Nagar to refund the excess amount to parents within a month. The fees were charged from the academic session 2017-18 to 2019-20 (three years).
Schools like Centre Point, Bhavan’s, St Xavier’s and Narayana witnessed protests from aggrieved parents, many of whom lost their jobs or faced salary cuts, for reduction in fees. According to Jamdar, all these schools “illegally” increased the fees every year in gross violation of the rules.
As per the ‘Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fee) Act, 2011’, schools can hike fees only up to 15% once in two years, but the management collected excess charges every year from helpless parents. A majority of these schools had collected fees under the heads of amalgamated funds, activity charge, computer and e-learning charges, but failed to give any explanation on the rules under which those were collected.
