10 schools in Madhya Pradesh ordered to return Rs 65 crore fees illegally collected from students

JABALPUR: The authorities in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district have directed ten private schools to refund about Rs 65 crore charged extra as tuition fees from more than 81,000 students over seven academic sessions, an official said on Thursday. The schools had hiked tuition fees in violation of the law, said Jabalpur District Education Officer (DEO) Ghanshyam Soni.

The district-level committee set up under the Madhya Pradesh Niji Vidyalaya (Fees Tatha Sambandhit Vishayon Ka Viniyaman) Adhiniyam, 2017, examined the accounts of these schools and found them to be charging extra fees from students, he said.

The authorities have junked the illegal increase in fees by these schools and the collection of Rs 64.58 crore from 81,117 students between 2018-19 and 2024-25, he said. Soni told PTI that he issued notices to the schools on Tuesday directing them to refund the illegally collected fees. On May 27, the Jabalpur district administration had got 11 FIRs registered against school functionaries and a few bookshop owners for allegedly illegally raising fees and textbook prices respectively, officials said.

Fee hike without approval

Then, action was taken against the school functionaries and textbook shop owners after discrepancies linked to them were uncovered, according to district collector Deepak Saxena. As per the rules, a school is required to get the approval of the district administration if it intends to raise the fees by more than 10 per cent. If the proposed hike is beyond 15 per cent, the school has to seek the nod from a committee set up by the state government, said an official. Some of these schools hiked fees by more than 10 per cent, while others by over 15 per cent without seeking the approval of the appropriate authorities, the collector added.