Orchids school puts parents in a spot of bother

DDPI asks school authorities to co-operate with parents

The Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI), Bengaluru North, H B Manjunath, on Tuesday issued a notice to Orchid The International School in Jalahalli asking the management to cooperate with parents who want to shift their children from the school in light of Education department’s finding that school was running a number of illegal sections. Anxious parents who are seeking transfer of their children to other schools are, however, worried over the issue of refund of fees.

Manjunath said that the school had sought time to correct the illegalities. The Law department had clarified earlier that there was no provision to do so under the law. He said that the Education department had identified five schools in the surrounding area and had asked Orchid  The International School to begin the procedure of  giving the transfers soon. He added that the tuition fee for the remaining months would have to be returned.

Interestingly, Mohammad Mohsin, Commissioner of Public Instruction and H M Raju, BEO, North-2 are not aware of the notice. A parent, whose child studies in class 6, told Deccan Herald on the condition of anonymity, that no information had been given to any parent on how exactly to go about with the transfer.

“One parent who I know went to the school last Saturday to seek a refund. However, the school refused saying that they would not be able to refund the fee. They (school management) also said that they have the permission to run despite the government saying otherwise,” she said.

Lata Ghorpade, another parent whose child studies in class 6 said, “A transfer would be difficult if we don’t have a valid document. We will probably have to decide collectively. We are not sure as to what’s going on.”

Orchid school was found to be unauthorisedly running class 6 and 7 as well as the pre-primary sections. Over 500 students are studying in these illegal sections. The BEO had issued a notice last week asking the school to shut down, but the school management is not ready to budge.