A parent successfully fought against her daughter’s school in the consumer court, which ordered a partial refund of the school fees as well as the litigation expenses.
The school has been asked to refund the fee of ₹1 lakh and ₹2,000 towards litigation expenses within 45 days by the Bangalore Urban II Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum on July 11.
Bindu Vaz, whose daughter was admitted to Shibumi in Uttarahalli, approached the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum in March last year.
According to Ms. Vaz, it was made clear to the school that her daughter was interested in giving her A level (Cambridge University) exams even before joining the school in 2017.
Though the teacher body, which assessed her daughter initially, said she would not be ready to give the exam in 2017, Ms. Vaz maintained that keeping her in the school for more than a year was not financially feasible for her.
“The school told me that although they have seen that most students take three years to complete the A level programme, there could be exceptions. Upon the commitment provided by the teachers to help with Biology, English and Psychology, I shifted residence to Kanakapura Road from R.T. Nagar. The next shock came when the school sent me a letter in June 2017 regarding a hike of 30% in school fees, making it ₹2.35 lakh. This was not revealed to me when I sought admission,” she said.
Ms. Vaz said after paying another ₹1.2 lakh, the school started saying that her daughter would be allowed to attempt her exams only in 2019.
“Finally, the school told her that she could either stay another year in the school and pay another school year fees or choose to leave and attempt the exam privately. And that is what my daughter did. She was home schooled, and completed her high school in June 2018,” she said.
When contacted, Sharad Jain from Shibumi, who has been named as the opposite party in the order, said he would be unable to comment as he had not received the order.
