The education inspector of Mumbai South region has issued a showcause notice to a prominent South Mumbai school demanding an explanation on the exorbitant fees and charges being collected by the school towards extra curricular activities without the approval of the school’s Parents Teachers’ Association. Incidentally, the ICSE school does not have the requisite No Objection Certificate of the Maharashra government and the showcause notice has also questioned the school regarding this.
According to Jayant Jain, president of the Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE), which is spearheading the parents’ protest against the school’s alleged misdemeanours,
“The school has been collecting fees and charges under some pretext or the other. Students not using the school bus service have to pay fees for the same as well as pay for karate training whether they want to take part in it or not. Following such high-handedness by the school, the parents approached FFE and the issue was taken up with B.B. Chavan who is the education inspector of Mumbai South region.”
Speaking on the reason behind issuing the show cause notice, Mr Chavan said that after visiting the school on February 3, it was found that the parents’ allegations were true and the school was collecting money from students under one pretext or the other.
“Apart from the compulsory school bus and karate fees, the school has also collected Rs 500 from each student for the sports day without the approval of the PTA and has also collected Rs 250 towards membership fee of the PTA when it can collect only Rs 50. It is also functioning without the state government NOC which is mandatory for non-state board schools,” said Mr Chavan, adding that the school had also collected higher admission fees while it had to be equivalent to the monthly tuition fees.
Mr Jain said students at the school have had to face harassment from the school after it received the show cause notice.
“The parents are contemplating filing a public interest litigation against the school as the education department has failed to stop the atrocities of the school,” said Mr Jain.
The allegation Charges were allegedly being collected by the school towards extra curricular activities without the approval of the school’s Parents Teachers’ Association
Incidentally, the ICSE school does not have the requisite No Objection Certificate of the state government
