Ecole Mondiale makes parent cough up Rs10 lakh

Despite the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, which prohibits schools from expelling children between the ages of 6 and 14 years, a parent from Ecole Mondiale World School in Juhu has alleged that the school expelled her children in August as she was late in paying their annual fees by 18 days.

In addition, she had to pay an extra Rs10lakh for re-admitting her children, a girl in grade I and boy in grade IV, in accordance with a revised fee structure.

The parent, a Non-Resident Indian from UK, said that she had made arrangements for paying the school fees of Rs10,58, 640 for grade I and Rs8,98,240 for grade IV for the academic year 2011-2012.

These fees were due by June.  However, for certain reasons, her office was unable to send the cheques to the school on time and they were sent on June 18.

The family returned from London two days before the school was going to re-open in August. On the first day of the school, the parent was shocked to find that her children’s name was not on the list.

When she got in touch with the school, she was informed that her wards were expelled because she had not paid the fees on time. “I was not given any prior notice that my children would be expelled for late payment of fees, despite the school having all my communication details,’’ she said.

With re-admission, the parent had to pay the fees according to the new structure and she was shocked to see a difference of close to Rs10 lakh between the old and the new fees that she had to pay. She had to pay Rs14,90,025 per child — annual fees of Rs11,68,275, one time admission fee of Rs3,15,750 and application fee of Rs 6,000.

“This means I had to pay an extra Rs 23,966 and Rs 32,877 per day for both my children. I had to pay close to Rs10 lakh extra just for defaulting the payment of fees by 18 days,’’ she said.

Since she is an NRI, the parent was not aware of any forum to lodge her complaint. However, on December 7, she complained about this to the Forum For Fairness in Education, an NGO for education. President Jayant Jain said, “It is shocking that the school expelled the children. They might be an IB board school but they are also subject to the RTE act. They cannot expel children on such grounds.’’

A senior education official said that the RTE is applicable to all the schools operating in India irrespective of their board of education since it was a central legislation. Hence, the school was wrong in expelling the children. “We will launch an enquiry into the matter to see if the parent’s claims are true,” he said.

Despite a three-hour wait at the school to meet its principal, this correspondent was turned away on the ground that a meeting was not possible without an appointment.