Global Indian International School was not cooperating: DEO report to FRC

A day after over 50 students were allegedly locked up in a classroom by Global Indian International School (GIIS), the District Education Officer, Ahmedabad-rural, in a report submitted to the Fee Regulatory Committee stated that the school authorities are non-cooperative.

The report was submitted following a complaint made by some parents of GIIS, alleging that the school had held their children in a classroom and had cancelled their admission. On Monday, after the parents dropped their wards to school, few affected students were in for a shock when they were not allowed to enter the classroom but sit in a separate classroom for an hour, as they had not paid fees.

Following the complaint, the education officials visited the school campus to verify the allegation and insisted on checking the CCTV footage. However, the CCTV was not working. Commenting on the report, Rakesh Vyas, DEO, Ahmedabad-rural said, "Our report essentially focuses on non-cooperation by the school management over complaint filed by the parents. The school did not give any reply and were not cooperative hence we are drawing attention of the FRC which will eventually take action against the school. The FRC has also issued show-cause notice to the school."

Interestingly, on March 30, FRC had issued a show-cause notice to the school seeking a reply on why action should not be taken against them. The notice said, "You cannot act in violation of the order passed on March 7 and pressurise the parents to pay the fees as per your whims and caprice. Though the position is not clear, you have still chosen not to comply with the final order passed by the committee and claimed your right to initiate action against the parents who are willing to pay fees as determined by the committee." The FRC asked the school to file their reply in seven days failing which the committee will pass appropriate order.

An official statement from the school said, "GIIS is a responsible academic institution that works for the betterment of education in India and takes the issues of safety and well-being of any child on its premises very seriously.

GIIS has followed the due process for fixing of school fees and is in full compliance of the guidelines, directed by the Supreme court vide order dated February 1, 2018. GIIS is not in violation of any order of the FRC as per Gujarat Self-Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017, and is lawfully charging a fee on provisional basis. GIIS will refund the excess amount, if so, directed by the Supreme court. In the meantime, on a completely unrelated matter of consistent fee defaulters, school has informed the concerned parents who have not paid the fees for past several months and a few who have not paid fees for last 2 years, to kindly pay the school fees.

Despite repeated reminders from the school they have failed to do so and resulting which they were informed of the violation of school policy and notified of the admission termination."

School entitled to insist for fees approved by FRC

The FRC has allowed Udgam School for Children to insist parents for payment of any outstanding amount of final fees approved by the FRC before giving admission for academic year 2019-20. The school last month had written to the DEO seeking their intervention for some parents, who were not willing to pay fees even when approved by the FRC.

The school in its letter had stated: While the school has refunded the difference as per the FRC, there are some parents who have not paid fees as per the FRC order. As the new academic year is about to start from April 2019, we will need to clarify with the authorities on the action the school will be allowed to take on these parents. The school had also attached list of parents who had not paid fees.