Know your rights – School admissions and fees refund
School admissions and fees refund
Its a known fact that there is no consistent Admission schedule followed by schools in the country. While some schools start taking admissions for next session as early as June, there are others who wait till the end of October. In such a scenario, what happens when you have paid admission fees to one school initially and later your child gets admission to a far superior school of choice. What happens if you as parents switch to a different city for job after completing admission process in first school. You would want to pursue refunds of the admission fee paid to the first school. Won’t you? However, in reality, many parents go by the first school’s rule book and either forfeit entire or a portion of fees paid to the first school or deprive themselves of admissions to the school of preferred choice. The parents generally feel that School admissions and fees refund never go hand in hand but that is not true.
What does the rule book say?
There are no clear instructions from curriculum boards or Directorate of Education for refund of admission fees once paid. Only in case of Delhi, it is written in rule book of DoE that entire fees (admission fees usually consist of components like One time Admission fees, Caution/Security Money, Development charges/Annual charges) has to be refunded within one month of being paid. The schools are allowed to retain only marginal amount as processing charges. But then, one would say it is because the admission schedule in all schools in Delhi is fixed and coincide with each other.
In year 2009, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education issued public notices and circulars condemning such practices and instructed the institutions to refund the fee collected from the parents. A maximum of Rs 1,000 can be retained towards processing charges that may have been incurred by the institution in regard to the admission. However, both UGC and AICTE are meant for UG colleges and have no control over schools.
Till 2011, most of the consumer courts had given judgments in favor of complainants (parents). However, in 2011, the Apex Supreme Court passed a judgment which held that Education is not a service hence student was not a consumer. As a result, consumer court complaints from parents were not being accepted at consumer courts (district). However, in 2016, Maharashtra state commission differentiated services offered by schools. Post this, many district forums have cited this case for passing orders in favor of parents.
The current scenario with private schools?
Since there is nothing in the rule book, for ample clarity, many schools nowadays specify a clause in their admission forms that admission fees once paid will not be refunded. They only refund the security money if at all they do. However, as a matter of fact, this arbitrary clause from schools has no legal standing.
Parents have the legitimate right to a refund of the fees from first school in case they move to another school or city, so as to exercise their right to join a school of their choice. This has been proven time and again in cases where parents have gone to courts seeking refund of entire admission fees amount.
What options do parents have?
- Parents shall submit to school in writing to refund the entire amount except for nominal processing fees. They can also attach copy of references shared to previous cases of refund as shared in References section in this article. Please note any arbitrary clause from school has not hold good in court of law.
- Parents can reach district consumer forum and file case for a meager fee of Rs. 200 plus miscellaneous expenses. If the case is not accepted at district level, parents can appeal at state consumer forum for Rs 500 plus miscellaneous expenses.
- Parents can eventually reach district civil courts. In either of consumer or civil court case, if the case is accepted, the schools will be asked to pay litigation charges along with full fee refund.
Parents shall feel free to contact us for any query or help should they need any.
References
Below are case studies of instances where schools have been directed to refund fees on complaint of parents:
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Last Updated on August 7, 2018 by Go4Reviews
I had followed the entire procedure however Aspam Scottish School in Noida is not refunding fees. Kindly guide.
मेरा बच्चा क्लास 2 से पास हुआ पर मार्च महीने मैने मेरा s तबादला होने की वजह से टीसी कटा ली फिर 4 महीने बच्चा स्कूल नहीं गया और 1 अगस्त को मैने नए स्कूल में प्रवेश दिलाया
स्कूल सत्र अप्रैल से मार्च वाला है
अब नए स्कूल वाले अप्रैल मई जून जुलाई की फीस मांग रहे है जब की बच्चा नए स्कूल गया नहीं है उस टाइम में
तो मुझे क्या करना चाहिए
We agree its not a good practice for schools to ask for tuition fees for a period child didnt join school. Generally schools will ask for whole year fees if the child has given mid term examinations like half yearly after joining session. Some schools also ask for whole year tuition fees if the child has been re- taught the first few month’s syllabus. Very few schools are flexible on this.
Its best to crosscheck in writing with schools before taking admission because that is when you are in bigger control of things.
For your situation, you can ask school for some waiver in writing through email mentioning about your personal situation.
हम इस बात से सहमत हैं कि स्कूलों द्वारा उस अवधि के लिए ट्यूशन फीस मांगना अच्छा चलन नहीं है जब बच्चा स्कूल में शामिल नहीं हुआ। आम तौर पर यदि बच्चे ने सत्र में शामिल होने के बाद अर्धवार्षिक जैसी मध्यावधि परीक्षा दी है तो स्कूल पूरे साल की फीस मांगेंगे। यदि बच्चे को पहले कुछ महीनों का पाठ्यक्रम दोबारा पढ़ाया गया हो तो कुछ स्कूल पूरे साल की ट्यूशन फीस भी मांगते हैं। बहुत कम स्कूल इस पर लचीले हैं।
प्रवेश लेने से पहले स्कूलों के साथ लिखित रूप से जांच करना सबसे अच्छा है क्योंकि तभी आप चीजों पर अधिक नियंत्रण रखते हैं।
अपनी स्थिति के लिए, आप अपनी व्यक्तिगत स्थिति का उल्लेख करते हुए ईमेल के माध्यम से लिखित रूप में स्कूल से कुछ छूट के लिए कह सकते हैं।
I went to School few times and asked for my refund. I had to visit few times but finally they agreed to refund my amount.
Thank you all for your comments and support.
I suggest visiting the school and keep asking for it and ask them to send an email is they cannot refund the admission fees.
Thanks
Thats such a positive and wonderful news. Hope this motivates all parents here. A good way to get the school to buzz is to carry along documentation with old court rulings that can help create a sense of awareness and in turn create pressure on school.
If any of our suggestions helped you in some way, request to pls share your testimonial/feedback about us at https://www.quora.com/How-has-your-school-admission-counselling-experience-been-with-Go4reviews-in Thanks again for keeping in touch.
I am expericing a similar situation with New Horizon Public School, Airoli. Being 1st time parent and no one to guide on School Administration tactics that “admissions will close soon since we have limited seats”; considering it to be a good school we took a quick admission in November 2023 for an academic year 2024-2025 Jr KG class. In April due to varied personal scenarios we had to take a decision to cancel the admission and seek refund. The school if okay to refund Rs. 20,050 (1st installment) but are not agreeing to refund the One Time Fee of R. 25,000. During admission they also asked us to sign some documents for which they were neither ready to share a copy of the document with us or take image of the same. I guess it was some Non-Objection document. It was surprising that in April 2024 Jr KG admissions were still on and academic year had not started the day refund and cancellation was requested by us.
School gyaan ka mandir nahi dukaan bana rakha hai kuch schools ne. It feels bad that your hard earned money is lost like this. Unsure how the Trustees and Directors not feel suffocated by putting their integrity and self-respect at stake. For them it would be mere Rs 25,000 but for a middle class family it is a monthly income. Ghar chal jata hai poore mahine me itne paise se.
Is that one time fees – admission fees? Even if you had signed a one sided agreement, the argument of the school wont hold good on this basis. If you are sure that the session had not started and admissions were still ongoing, please see if you can collect proof. You can try your luck at district consumer court.
Hi, I am facing a similar challenge. Unfortunately the school is New Horizon Public school (same brand for which you have shared the TOI Case study but for Bengaluru while mine is Airoli, Navi Mumbai)
The admission was done in November 2023 for the academic year 2024-25 for Jr KG; in followed motnhs since I was going through financial and personal situations, we thought to reconsider some other school and we request the cancellation alongside refund on 20th April 2024. The admission for Jr KG was still open on that day & the academic year has yet not started; it is planned to start in June after 10th.
The school agreed to refund the 1st installment of fee but are not agreeing to refund the One-time fee which is Rs. 25,000. They had asked us to sign a booklet which I guess was Non-Objectionable document. Since it was the first time as parents and we had no on to guide plus a good school for our kid being our top priority, we considered it however now I am scared if I can take a legal stand. I need that money considering my personal situation; I made numbers of request to the school but they are adamant and are not even allowing us to connect with the Principal or the Trustee.
Thank you for the response. I will do as advised.
Sir Jalandhar me mere bache ki school fees refund nhi ho Rahi
Tuition fees ya admission fees?
hello sir
mene apni daughter ka admission krwaya hai PCS Delhi, in the moth of January, 2024 in Class KG and we have paid 6 months fee that is 28200 tuition fee 4200 annual fee and Rs. 10000.00 donation. The session will start in April, 2024 for 2024-25. Now i want to cancel the admission and want to take admission in another school. The School is following Delhi Govt. fee refund policy. Can I get full fee refund paid by me in the month of January, 24 at the time of admission……
hi, this is the notification that applies https://www.edudel.nic.in/upload/upload_2019_20/2077_2086_dt_01032019.PDF
As per this, if you have cancelled admission within 1 month of admission, then the school can take only 1 month proportion of fees and should refund the rest.
I have taken admission in play school of my daughter and it’s been 6 months and they took registration charges apart from monthly fees.is there any way I can get refund of registration charges
they wont if the academic session has already started or in progress
Sir I am in class 11 actually it’s been a month since academic session started I don’t want to continue in this school . I have already paid 30000 can I still get some refund. CBSE school.
It would be difficult if academic session already started.
Respected Madam/Sir,
I have took admission of my daughter in Euro School Kharadi for year 2024-25 and paid admission fees of Rs 40000 on 9th dec 2023. However I got the admission in another superior school and I requested for cancellation of admission and refund of my fees on 26 Feb 2024. I have sent lots of emails since 26 Feb 2024, visited the school tried to call and reach them. And all I did this is before there admission closes for year 20224-25. But still they are not refunding it. Could you please help me with this regard. Thanking you
hi Rohit, you can try sending them requests through registered posts as well. Finally, if its not working out, you can file a case in district consumer court. You dont need a lawyer to fight your case in district court. Please remember that you would need to prove that you indeed requested for refund before admission period closed.
manibai gagurati high school in amravati donation refund 22000 rupes please
Hello,
I had taken admission of my daughter at TRPS -Dahisar for class VIII for academic year 2023-24. Due to some issues , I have cancelled the admission before start of school. I approached school managment for refund but they are denying stating that their admission form mentions that the fee is non refundable. Kindly advise me in this regard.
If their admission process was not over, there is a chance for getting it back. So, please check that. Thereafter, you can follow the steps as mentioned in previous comments.
Can anyone please help, I have taken admission in one of IES schools.for.my son in nursery,but due to some reason we cancelled the admission.They refunded only 75% of total 1lac..and 25 k they are saying is.non refundable..this is quite not acceptable..can Nyone help how to fight to get the 25k refund
To start with, Please send them written communication followed by legal notice to school and mention about your grounds (with proofs if possible). If admission process was closed, it might be difficult to get refund but above will help.
Hi Sir
I need your help in seeking school fees refund back from one of the schools in bangalore, i had admitted my son to PP2 during nov for the academic year 2023-2024. The schools are yet to start and i have written a mail seeking refund since due to my health and family conditions i am unable to afford and relocate to that school. However school has only agreed to refund caution deposit of Rs 25000, i have been said remaining Rs 1,00,000/- is non refundable. Can you please suggest or help. i have intimated school on 19th of June, School is supposed to start on 24th June.
Regards,
Manjunath K
Please send them written communication followed by legal notice and mention about your health grounds with proofs. If admission process was closed, it might be difficult to get refund but above will help.
Mere bacche ka admission bording school mein hua, or 2nd day bacche ne school m rhne se mana kr diya baccha 11standard k liye admission hua, mein school fees ki 1st installment Jama ki mera refund milega ki nahi
Is scenario mein bahut difficult hai. Par aap school se baat kar sakte hain ki school kuch proportion us fees ka vapas karde. Direct interaction ke alawa. Aap email aur registered posts ke through bhi ye request kar sakte hain.
I want to cancel my admission but the school is not returning the admission fees is there any return policy of admission cancellation and refund in doon bharti public school
Please send them written communication followed by legal notice and mention about your personal grounds with proofs. If admission process was closed, it might be difficult to get refund but above will help.
Hi
DPS Dehradun has taken 35,000 as admission fees from us and now they are not ready to refund it.
We have informed them over the email that we would not be able to take admission because we are not in a position to relocate to Doon.
Sir i have paid full in one go for UKG for the new session which start from april but we are transferring to another city will i get refund in full
If the admission process for the school is still in progress, you can demand refund in full. Send them a written request and follow that up with a visit.
Jai hind sir.
Sir my daughter had joined school class till 1st dec 2022 in aps ahmadnagar. I applied tc on 1st dec and got tc on 5th dec. But till now the fees have not been refunded sir. I called the school many times. Whenever I call, they say that refund will be done tomorrow. Sir it’s been 80 days till now the fees have not been received sir
जय हिन्द सर।
श्रीमान मेरी बेटी ने APS अहमदनगर में 1 दिसंबर 2022 तक स्कूल की क्लास जॉइन की थी। मैंने 1 दिसंबर को टीसी की एप्लीकेशन लगाई और 5 दिसंबर को टीसी मिली। लेकिन अब तक फीस वापस नहीं की गई सर। मैंने कई बार स्कूल को फोन किया। मैं जब भी फोन करता हूं तो कहते हैं कि कल रिफंड हो जाएगा। सर 80 दिन हो गए अब तक फीस नहीं मिली सर
सर please help
hi sir, please ask them in writing by registered post and else as legal notice. that should be the first step. but try to settle personally first. record your visits, take screenshot of register there.
hello sir, I have taken admission in keren public school, checkanurani, Madurai, tamilnadu.
i have paid them rs 20000 on 3rd august and taken admission but for some circumstances,my parents don’t want to send me to the school annd also for my grandfather health issue they want refund of money.
is it possible to take refund from school?
I took admission for My Child on 8th Apr 2021. My child took his first class on 9th Apr 2021 and during the interval of classes he called me and refused to take classes in a new school, he wanted to join his old school back. He called me 3-4 times that day for begging to go back to his older school. So, I talked to the school about canceling his admission, and as per their reply, I wrote an e-mail to their official mail ID and send an email copy in PDF format to the school’s representative via WhatsApp.
I paid Rs. 67550 (Admission Fee: Rs. 35000 + Caution Money: Rs. 5000 + Ist Quarter Fee: Rs. 27550 ). As per my latest talk with school’s representative they are only pay caution money + 2 months fee.
Is it legitimate?
Dear Ajay, Since their new session had started by then, they are in their rights to forfeit admission fees. In such a scenario, you could request them personally to refund admission fees but legally, may not be possible.
Hii
Sir i have paid 26000/- fees for class I in school. Due to the rude behavior of the school staff I decided to withdrawing my daughter’s admission. Session will start on 3- 4 th April 2023 and I post the application for withdrawing the admission on 29 th march2023. After seeing my mail the school admin staff member called me and told fee r nonrefundable. I request that u deduct one month fee or some amount and rest of amount please refund me but due to their rude behavior she told me no. So plz tell me what we do.
Please send these details on email. Specifically mention that you requested for fee refund before end of admission season. If there is no response, send them by registered post and then you could follow up with a legal notice. But, you need to give a solid reason for revoking admissions.
Sir,I have taken admission of my son in march 15 due to Corona school is closed and they are not providing online classes.school has taken 63000 it includes Admission fee, Annual fer and tution fee .How I will get my money back,pls help
Sir I also have a issue for refund the admission fee for PS class for the year 2010-21 with Vishwa Bharati Public School, Dwarka, New Delhi. Despite number of requests, letters, mails and messages on what’s app school principal has refused to refund the same due to lots of excuses in their reply. There after no finding any alternative I have to send a legal Notice to the principal concern and despite the receiving she got agree to pay only half of the entire deposited amount.
Sir pls help me in this situation. Pls give me legal advice in this regard as earliest possible as due to lockdown I’m facing lots of finencial problems but no body respond me till date.
Regards
Please help ..
I enrolled my 2 children to a private CBSE School (Bangalore – Urban) in the month of May 2019.
During admission procedure, I paid an amount of Rs 31382/- for books & uniforms.
Within a week, I put the request for cancellation of admission with the school due to relocation issues.
School did not gave me books & uniform due to stock unavailability during the time of payment, and later also.
Though I paid books & uniforms fee at school’s fee-counter within school premises, school gave me receipt in the name of some vendor internally managed by school.
The admission process was not completed fully as I did not submitted the mandatory documents.
My children did not attended the school even for a single day.
Receipts available with me at my side does not mentions the amount is non-refundable.
So far school has not given me books & uniforms.
School is denying the refund of book & uniform saying that it is non-refundable.
Kindly suggest what to do.
Dear Sameer, we are extremely sorry for having missed your query. Unfortunately, per law, admission process completion is defined per school per session and not by an individual parent’s process.
Talk to the school to understand why its non-refundable. I presume they have given advance order to the vendor and hence not in a position to repay. At this point, you can ask them to share the school’s communication with vendor with date. If its after you requested for refund, you have a good case. Else, the advice would be to buy the books with receipt date and then try to coordinate with vendor to buy back with some discount.
Dear Sir,
I admitted my two daughters in a private school in Noida in July 2017. During the admission time, i paid a security money of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rs.50,000/- for each) in respect of both daughters. They completed the academic session 2017-18 and 2018-19 in the same school. I have also paid the admission charges and fees in respect of both for the first quarter of session 2019-20 (April 2019- June 2019). I received my transfer order in May 2019, however not sure about my movement i did not give notice to school immediately. After summer break, i did not send my daughters to school and sent a notice to school on 27 July 2019 about our movement. Now school is refusing to refund the security money quoting that first we have to deposit three months fees for the 2nd quarter i.e. July 2019 to September 2019, then only they will refund the fees. Can you help me in this case.
Dear reader, we are extremely sorry for having missed your query. Since the quarter has begun, they will charge the fees.
i admission my child in private boarding school and and given a admssion fees for two month fees around 80000 and one month studies ,and school dress around 1lakes and i want to shift my child in other country school ,can refund from some amount from that school
Dear reader, we are extremely sorry for having missed your query. If the admission process and school session had not begun, you could have approached school for refund.
My son got Admission in the preschool in April.Minimum 15 days he went because of election holidays and summer break. Now we are shifting to other city and I am not sure whether school will refund me the annual fees or not. What should I do?
Please help
If admission process in the school is complete/session has already started, it would be difficult to get the refund of admission fees. Tuition fees for future quarters shall be refundable.
A local school in ahmedabad is asking a friend to withdraw his daughter (sr. Kg) from the school basis attendance 60% and weak in English language.. they are forcing the parents to take the fees back and seek admission elsewhere. Does pre primary education by a private school have attendance and exam criteria for being promoted to the next class or are my friends being taken for a ride? The fact that the school told them this only in March-April when all other schools are through with their admissions.. please guide
Till Class V, every child has right to education and cant be denied promotion to next class. However, it is important for parents to communicate about leaves in advance with valid reasons so that school can plan accordingly. Parents should communicate in writing with the school mentioning to them about No-detention policy that prohibits schools from failing a child till class V(EXCLUSIVE of class V, this used to be till class VIII previously).
Further, please read Gujarat’s RTE law at http://righttoeducation.in/sites/default/files/The%20Gujarat%20Elementary%20Education%20Rules%2C%202010.pdf that states “No school will withhold any child in any grade, but parents can ask their child to repeat a grade,
if the child was not able to attend school regularly during the year or failed to achieve minimum
level of learning.”
Hello sir, my child got admission in st joseph convent school punjab. (Actually he has done his LKG in first devision from cbse affiliated school new delhi). During admission time school showed high level syllabus for admission in ukg. Thats why we decided to get admission in LKG again. But now their syllabus is not that they showed us at the time of admission. And i requested the school authority to shift my student in ukg class and if necessary they can take test of him. Bt they rejected. Thats why i decided to get my admission fees back from the school. Is it possible to get money back from st joseph convent schol?
hi, sorry to hear about the situation. I assume you have already decided to take admission for your ward in some other school. Since admission season is over, they might not be bound to return admission fees. However, you may try sending them written emails and registered posts on either of your expectations. Unfortunately, that’s the only way to trying your luck once.
I’m in Indian Army. I paid Rs 4000 towards registration of my two kids at school nearby my village as I was planning to shift my family from Mumbai to my village. But due to Pulwama attack and high alerts followed by Air Strike, my leave was cancelled and I was not able to shift my family at my village. Now the school denies to refund registration fee.
What should I do?
Please Suggest, I have admitted my child to KG class in RD Rajpal school on intimation by them ,they also said that in case of refund you have to come with application within a month.
But later after a month my kid got admission in another far superior school. due to which ,I requested RD school to refund after a month .they are refusing ,I am requesting them to refund any amount as they desire .To my surprise and embarrassment they did not refunded as my hard earned money is loosing without any benefit or services provided by school as far as admission is considered.
Thanks
Try by sending them registered posts and email seeking refund and keep receipt handy.
Please also read https://go4reviews.in/2019/02/legal-remedies-against-an-educational-institute-to-an-aggrieved-student-or-parent/
I have paid my fees in Kuns DLF branch but now opting out because I get a better option in Shiv Nadar. But school is saying no to refund. Please help.
This is a very useful read for parents who are being controlled by schools and their stupid rules.
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing
After going to civil court against a school in Gurgaon, the school refunded entire amount other than registration fees in an out of court settlement. Took me a year though though.
Thanks for sharing.
It is so important for govt to bring some regulations around this. Admissions in a city shall happen together so that parent’s have a common platfofm to choose from before paying fees.
I also fought a case against a prominent school in Gurgaon. Originally, school was only paying back security money. Once the case was accepted, the school agreed to pay me 90% of total fees as an out of court settlement. It took around a year but finally…
Thanks. This is very important piece of info.
R/sir mere bete Ka admission the Jain International School Aurangabad me kiya tha but kuch resion ke do din may admission cansel Kr diya he or dono ki admission fess 27000 Rupee
Paid Ki thi school fess retun Kr ne Ka koai police Nahi asa Bata rahe to muje ky krna chahe
hi, admission apke dwara cancel kiya gaya hai kya ya school ke dwara?