In a first, the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) has issued an interim order asking five prominent private schools in the city to refund the excess amount allegedly collected as ‘brokerage’ from parents. The amount was collected by compelling parents to buy books and study material from a particular vendor chosen by the school.
Passed by commission chairperson Kripa Amar Alva on July 24, 2017, the interim order directs the schools to refund the amount to the parents within a month and submit a compliance report to the commission.
The directions were issued on a complaint filed by one Kodandarama H. The complainant had pointed out that the schools had availed the service of an online books and stationary materials seller who had sold the books and material at more than the double the price of the products in the open market.
The commission, after making enquiries with some of the parents, and comparing the vendor’s price of the books to the price in the open market, found a difference of more than twice the amount. It also found that none of the books supplied through the seller bore maximum retail price (MRP) tags.
The commission noticed on copies of letters, purportedly written by the seller to the schools, that the former offered ‘brokerage’ to the schools in the range of ₹35 lakh to ₹68 lakh depending on whether a discount was given to the students in the range of 5% to 10% or not.
It has stated that overpricing the books is in violation of the law as the Karnataka Educational Institutions (Classification, Regulation and Prescription of Curricula) Rules, 1995, states that the purchase of books and uniforms either from a school or from a school-authorised shop is a choice of the student or the parents, and the schools cannot make any compulsion in this regard.
The commission has also asked the online seller to furnish the list of the 32 schools it supplies books to.
The KSCPCR had issued notices to six top city schools in this regard. While five of these have been asked to refund the parents, the commission is yet to take a decision on the sixth school.