Mother plans to drag Bangalore school to the consumer court

The mother of a four-year-old child is planning to approach the consumer court alleging that a well-known school in Bangalore has been refusing to refund her Rs45,000 for four months even though she did not avail service for the amount.

Priyanka Sharma, a consultant with a telecom firm in the city, said her ordeal began in December last when she paid the amount to National Centre for Excellence located in Sarjapur Road to admit her child in the institution’s LKG section.

However, in January this year, Sharma decided to admit her child to another school. When she approached the school to refund the money, authorities refused to pay back the sum stating that the institution does not refund an amount once taken up.

“I was shocked when the school refused to pay back my money. How could they charge me such a hefty amount when I didn’t avail any service from them?” asked Sharma.

She approached the school authorities several times, but the school authorities denied the refund every time. Sharma then told the school to deduct some amount and return the remaining money. “I thought that if my last-minute change in plan of not admitting my child to the school caused the authorities any inconvenience, then they can cut some amount and return the rest to me. But they did not agree to this suggestion also,” she said.

She also wrote to the school authorities several times, with no positive result.

After being advised by some education and legal experts, Sharma has now decided to approach the consumer court.

“Hope I get justice. I have all the required documents of money being paid to the school. I will produce all the letters I had exchanged with the school authorities,” said Priyanka. When contacted, the school authorities said that registration fee was not refundable.

“Our school doesn’t refund registration money. It’s against our policy, even if parents don’t avail our service,” said Sunita Arun, an administrative official at the school.

Many parents like Priyanka who had undergone harassment at the hands of the school authorities rued that they had no forum to take up their issues.

“We are all helpless. Nobody is there to address our issues. Right from donation to getting our wards admitted to schools, the problems for parents in Bangalore are plenty,” said Srinivas P, the father of a 7-year-old school-going daughter. 

Expressing displeasure over the incident, child rights activists said it was sad the way education had been commercialised in Bangalore.

“Even to admit a child in nursery, parents have to pay money to the tune of Rs50,000 to Rsl lakh. Schools are minting money in the name of providing education,” said Vasudev Sharma, a senior member of Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights. He demanded immediate action against erring schools.