Hyderabad's Sancta Maria School refunds fees after parents file petition in HC

Hyderabad: Sancta Maria International School, on 9 September, refunded the school fees for the entire year to a parent after a writ petition was filed in the Telangana High court.

Dr. Samit Shekhar's children were studying in UKG and class I at Sancta Maria. The school asked him to deposit the school fees for the year. “We deposited the monthly fees in May. After that, the school asked me to pay the fees for the whole year,” he said, adding that his kids' online classes barely lasted 20 minutes.

When Dr. Samit told the school authorities that according to a government order, schools were prohibited from demanding full fees, the school told him that if he failed to pay the fees the online classes for his children would be terminated. “We approached the district education office in July regarding the school fees. The DEO sent a show-cause notice to the school but the school didn’t respond to the order,” said Dr. Samit. Later, he enrolled his kids in another school.

On 9 September, he was informed that Sancta Maria International School had refunded the school fees on August 29 as a cheque.

Meanwhile, the Telangana High Court has postponed the hearing of the PIL filed by the Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA) regarding school fees.

On 21 April, the Telangana government had ordered schools to collect only monthly fees. The PIL was filed after several schools violated the government order.

On Wednesday, the Telangana High Court asked Sanjeev Kumar, the counsel for the state, to file an additional affidavit with regard to the number of complaints received against the erring schools, number of erring schools which may have been issued show-cause notices, number of schools who have filed their replies thereto, number of schools against which steps have been taken by the government, and the nature of the steps being taken by the government against the erring schools.