CURATED BY – DHEERAJ KUMAR AHIRWAL | CITYCHIEFNEWS

Damoh, Nav Jagriti Higher Secondary School management has been charged with improper fee hike and additional amount of 61 lakh 87 thousand 2 hundred 80 rupees from session 2022-23 to session 2024-25. On the instructions of Collector and District Committee Chairman Sudhir Kumar Kochar, District Education Officer and Member Secretary District Committee SK Nema has issued orders for the regulation of private school fees and related matters to refund the fees improperly collected by the school management to the students / parents within 30 days.

According to the order issued, the additional school management has increased the unreasonable fees, forced the students / parents to buy books from selected book sellers and MP. As a result of violation of various provisions of the Private Schools (Regulation of Fees and Related Matters) Act 2017 and the rules made under it, a penalty of Rs 2 lakh has also been imposed on the school management by the District Committee. Orders have also been issued to deposit the imposed penalty online in the account of the Commissioner of Public Education within 15 days.

The District Education Officer said that the investigation team constituted by the order issued by Collector Sudhir Kumar Kochar to investigate the ISBN of the books run by private publishers in private schools and the fees entered on the portal and the documents related to the related subjects, investigated the ISBN and fees of the books recommended by Navjagriti Higher Secondary School Damoh in the session 2024-25 and the documents related to the related subjects.

He said that after the investigation, a show cause notice was issued to the school management. After a thorough investigation of the explanation given by the school management, the fact of improper fee hike and forcing students / parents to purchase books from selected book sellers came to light. The school management has increased the fees of English medium students unfairly and collected Rs. 11 lakh 27 thousand 8 hundred from 1613 students in the session 2022-23, Rs. 23 lakh 9 thousand 520 from 1604 students in the session 2023-24 and Rs. 21 lakh 51 thousand 90 from 1482 students in the session 2024-25 from the students/parents. By increasing the fees of Hindi medium students unfairly, Rs. 1 lakh 9 thousand 8 hundred 70 from 376 students in the session 2022-23 and Rs. 4 lakh 89 thousand from 489 students in the name of computer fees in the session 2024-25.