Chennai's Bala Vidya Mandir school directed to refund fees to parents who paid more than stipulated amount

Chennai: Chennai's Bala Vidya Mandir school which came under flak for discriminatory fee structure is directed to refund fees to parents who paid more than the stipulated amount. The order was passed by the fee determination committee appointed by the Tamil Nadu government.

The committee will meet parents after eight weeks to verify if the fees have been refunded.

Bala Vidya Mandir school had given parents options for school fees wherein a student will get better education and facilities if parents pay around Rs 60,000 per annum. The other option given to the parents was to pay a fee of Rs 35,800 after which their children will be permitted to attend only 4.5 hours of classes and will be denied more than 50 extra curricular activities and facilities such as the school canteen, multimedia lab, among others.

Opposing the discriminatory fee structure, parents and teachers had staged protests outside the private school. A parent said, "The school has been charging huge amounts of illegal fees for a long time. High fees was sparking point for parents to approach the committee."