RBK school admission fee feud: School changes its name on results

Parents of senior KG students in Mira Road's RBK School have been at loggerheads with the school management over admission fee, but yesterday they had another bone to pick with them. The school had released the pre-primary examination results online without its name or the ICSE board logo. Instead it mentioned that the result was by Ramaben Babubhai Kanakia Pre-primary School managed by RBK Solutions, which the parents alleged was a way to prove that pre-primary is not a part of RBK School and hence they charged the re-admission fee despite the fact that the last semester's result had RBK School on it.

The parents protest outside the school yesterday

But the parents didn't back off at that. They protested and got the hard copies of the results but continued protesting against the admission and the sports fee.

On April 7, mid-day had reported that while the school has asked parents of students who are to be promoted to Std I to deposit Rs 5,000 admission fee again, the parents claim that they had already paid Rs 25,000 under this category three years ago when they had admitted their child into the school. About the mandatory ‘professional sports' fee, the parents claimed that there is no professional guidance provided and asked why should they pay if their kid is not interested in sports.

They have sent letters to the state education board and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) board but haven't heard back.

The parents, who had come to attend an open house meeting, protested all day yesterday, to first acquire a hard copy of the results, which they did, and secondly raise their voice against the re-admission and sports fee.

"The school cannot just declare the result online. They took this step as we are fighting against their demand of re-admission fee. We can't understand how the same school can ask for admission charges twice.
Hence, the school is tampering with the results to show how the pre-primary section is different from the school. We can't let this happen," said a parent.

Parents are also worried since students risk losing a year due to this fee feud. "While we continue our fight for what is correct, we are also scared about the possibility that our child may lose an academic year if the school remains adamant," said a concerned parent.

The school administration refused to meet the parents throughout the protest yesterday and got mediators, which irked the parents even more. "Why does the school need a third party to talk to us? We won't cause any harm and they also hired bouncers for security, which is really demeaning," said a parent. She added that only those children are allowed to buy books and uniforms who have paid the admission fee and others have not even been allotted divisions for Std I.

mid-day contacted the school administration but they didn't respond.