Hyderabad: AVN Vida International School in Hyderabad is allegedly refusing to refund Rs 25,000 that a family had paid the money as tuition fee. The family said it is relocating to Bengaluru and has taken the child out of the school.
Ms Sree Swathi Voleti, a working professional and parent, who lodged the complaint with the CBSE, told this newspaper, “We had to cancel the admission in AVN Vida International School due to a medical emergency, and relocating to Bengaluru has become inevitable. We are finding it difficult to cope with the education expenses and the treatment.”
She said her husband had met with an accident, and relocation was taking a toll on the family’s finances.
“With great difficulty we enrolled our elder child on Friday and my younger child is still not going to school.”
Ms Voleti said she had been contacting the school every day. “The school is not responding to our request for a refund. We returned the books and uniforms and they refunded '16,000, but the school is not returning the fee.”
She said she had given a written request explaining her situation to the school. “We have not received any response. The refund will help us to send our child to school,” Ms Voleti said.
An official from AVN Vida International School said, “We have refunded the fee for uniforms and books which they returned to the school. They have to take back either the tuition fee or the payment for uniforms and books. We have paid nearly Rs 23,000 for the uniforms and books and they have not returned one set of books but we refunded the entire amount.”
“They should have taken the tuition fee and left the payment for uniforms. Now we are also planning to refund the tuition fee if it helps them,” the school official said.
Asked about the issue, Mr Ashish Naredi, member of the Hyderabad School Public Association said, “Except the fee till the month of seeking TC, the remaining amount has to be refunded to the parent. That is the rule of the CBSE. The school can retain the fee till June, or July at the most, and has to refund the rest.”
Another HSPA member, Mr Venkat Sainath, said, “Schools have been collecting first term fees when parents apply for the TC, which is against the rules. We have given several representations to the education department on the issues which has been bought to our notice but they haven't taken action on any school.”
