The Directorate of Education has directed private schools to refund the entire fees of students whose admission to nursery classes is cancelled for the 2015-16 academic session.
The fee must be returned within 15 days if the parents cancel the admission. Non-compliance by schools will invite stern action, the DoE said.
“If any fee is collected from a parent of a child whose admission is cancelled due to non-submission of original documents or due to false information being given during the registration process, the entire amount except registration charges shall be refunded by the unaided recognised private schools,” the DoE said in its circular on Wednesday.
If a parent chooses to withdraw his child after the admission within a month, the school can retain the registration amount as well as the admission charges and tuition fee for that month only, the DoE said. “But it should refund all other charges within 15 days of the request made by a parent to a school,” it added.
The issue was brought to the fore by a child rights group. “We have been getting complaints daily that many schools are refusing to refund fee giving irrational logic that no refund policy was issued for 2015-2016 session. So we have written to the Directorate of Education,” said Sumit Vohra, founder of www.admissionsnursery.com.
“Schools have been harassing parents by refusing to refund admission fees even as the DoE refund policy exists. Seeing this, we even wrote to the city Education Minister Manish Sisodia,” Vohra added.
Earlier, the DoE had directed schools not to charge capitation fee or indulge in a screening procedure for admitting a child.
“No school or person shall while admitting a child, collect any capitation fee and subject the child or his parents to any screening procedure,” the DoE has said on Monday.
