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Three Pune schools have overcharged fees: DyDE
Pune: The audit reports of three of the six private schools in Pune reveal an overcharge in fees as per the norms of Regulation of Admission and Fees Act, 2015
Pune: The audit reports of three of the six private schools in Pune reveal an overcharge in fees as per the norms of Regulation of Admission and Fees Act, 2015. The reports were made public by the Deputy Director of Education (DyDE) on Thursday.
Aryan World school (Bhilarewadi), Millennium school (Karvenagar), Clive Memorial school (Bibwewadi), Mansukhbhai Kothari National school (Kondhwa), Walnut school (Phursungi) and Elpro International school (Pimpri-Chinchwad) submitted the report to DyDE.
According to the DyDE department, four schools submitted fee hike data for only two academic years. Schools were asked to give details of fee incurred since 2014-2015 academic year. Education department officials said that schools were asked to submit reports since the last audit.
Audumbar Ukirde, deputy director of education, said, “Some schools have given us incomplete data. We have given them 10 days to resend their complete financial audit from the academic year 2014-2015. We are submitting the data to higher authorities.”
“In all the cases, this is schools’ first audit report. Hence, they should have ideally submitted the fee incurred for all academic years so far,” said officials, adding that only Aryan World school included fee incurred since the academic year 2017-2018 till 2020-2021.
As per the fee regulation act (FRA), increase in fees should not be more than 15 per cent and allowed only after two academic years.
The report shows Aryan World school, Millennium school and Clive Memorial school have overcharged fee from parents. Mansukhbhai Kothari National school did not reveal the documents for audit report.
The department found that Walnut school and Elpro International has not increased fee in the last two academic years. However, both the schools have submitted details of only 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.
Jayshree Deshpande, president, Parents Association of Pune, said that it is a small victory on the issue of overcharging of fees.
“However, schools have still not submitted the fee incurred and expenditure for the last seven years. We will keep on fighting to get those details too,” said Deshpande.
