2 schools collect Rs 1.2 crore excess fee, told to return it

Ghaziabad: A school in Vaishali has been asked to shell out a refund of Rs 72 lakh to parents while another in Shastri Nagar has been ordered to return Rs 50 lakh by the District Fee Regulatory Committee (DFRC) set up by the UP government to keep a watch on fee structures of private schools.
The panel, chaired by the district magistrate, has ordered three schools to return the money, deemed as excess fees, to parents, pegging the total refund at around Rs 1.2 crore. The schools also have the option of adjusting the fees in the current academic year.
A DFRC official said, “After going through documents provided by the school, it has been found that Uttam Girls Public School, Shastri Nagar charged an excess of anything between Rs 328 and Rs 5,355 from each of its students from nursery to standard 12 in the academic year 2018-19 so they have been ordered to refund or adjust excess fee in the academic year 2019-20. The total excess amount when calculated was found to be in excess of Rs 50 lakh.”
Sharmila Raheja, principal of Uttam Girls Public school, said the school would abide by the committee’s order.
The refund amount was stiffer for Modern School in Vaishali, which, the DFRC official said, charged between Rs 4,727 and Rs 6,489 more than it should have from students between nursery and Class 12.
“The excess fee which it charged when added comes to over Rs 72 lakh which they have been asked to either refund or adjust in the academic year 2019-20,” said the official.
Modern School’s principal, Miss Lata, said though school officials attended the DFRC proceedings on Monday, they had no inkling about the committee’s order.
“We are surprised that the committee in its order asked us to refund or adjust fee because in the committee’s entire proceedings we got no indication of the order,” she said.
The other school that was pulled up — Chhaya Public School, Vaishali — was found to have charged excess fee from students of class 1 to 10 between Rs 283 and Rs 1,942.
“That’s a total of Rs 88,000 which they have been ordered to either adjust or refund,” said the DFRC official.