Pvt school charging high fees in the dock

Education dept tells Safa High School to re-admit students it had dismissed and refund excess fees

- Niraj Pandit

MUMBAI: Parents of students in Safa High School and Junior College in Umerkhadi, Byculla, were taken aback when the school issued leaving certificates to 11 students, effectively cancelling their admissions. The move is the latest in a pitched battle between parents and the private unaided school over the allegedly arbitrary fees.

The dispute centres on alleged lack of transparency in the fees, which range ₹40,000 to ₹45,000 per child, per year, from Class 1 to 10. Parents claim the fees have not been approved by the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), a mandatory requirement, and every attempt to scrutinise the school's books of account and other financial details, which determine the fees that can be charged, has failed.

Parents raise concern Adil Ansari, a chartered accountant and father of two students at the school, was among the first to raise concerns.

"When we started questioning the fees and the facilities provided by the school, we discovered there was no functioning PTA. So, we stopped paying the fees and asked the school to share its income and expenditure details, but they refused," said Ansari. He clarified that the parents were not refusing to pay fees; they were upset at being allegedly overcharged.