Ryan International School — schools generate cash economy by not issuing receipts and insisting payments in cash only

Sir/madam,

This is the time of the year where the new academic year for school children will commence after their exams & end of short term holidays especially for cbse schools. There are so many activities like trekking, educational trips, camp outings etc conducted by reputed schools, either at the year end or at the beginning of the year for which these schools charge fees in cash only and insist on cash payments only even though the parents pay by cheque.

Secondly, no receipts are issued against these kind of payments. Schools like ryan international group do not accept payments by cheque and do not issue receipts. Consequently, schools generate cash economy by not issuing receipts and insisting payments in cash only.

Now coming to the purchase of school books for the next academic year. There are tie-ups with book stores by schools for commission in cash. Due to payment of commission by these book stores, they hike up the prices and recover the amounts from the parents. This way the school earns commission in cash at the expense of the parents. The payments for these books are also made in cash by the parents to the book stores as the book stores do not accept payments by cheque.

Ncert text books are sold by these book stores at rs 20 above mrp citing "binding charges". This way the book stores earn a fast buck in cash. Likewise, if any parent wants to return any new book purchased (When they have got the previous year edition book from friends or new books from cheaper sources like amazon.in, shopclues.com, olx.in etc), then the book store owner does not return the cash and asks the customer to purchase something else citing "paisa hamare paas jama hai" (Money is deposited with us). Book store owners sagar collection & vidyarthi book stores at khanda colony indulge in this unethical practice. Further these bookstores do not buy back the textbooks for re-circulation at a discounted price. A science textbook costs rs 600/-, sst textbook costs rs 500/- and computer textbook costs rs 500/-.

Reference books and lab manuals are also prescribed by schools but the teachers never teach anything from these books and students are expected to study on their own. However, in the examinations most of the questions are asked from the reference books and students find it difficult to cope without proper guidance from the teachers. Parents are scared to speak to the school authorities as the school teachers take out their revenge on the hapless children.

Last year, the school had changed the pt uniform dress and this was announced just before the camp outing. The parents were forced to buy dresses from sagar collection at inflated prices and that too for different sizes & colours even though these did not fit them properly as the dresses were not available. At the school camp outing, rented outfits were provided by a person who works at the school as teacher and has a garment store, at inflated prices o[censored]pto rs 2000 in cash for the camp of 3 to 4 days. This was again to be paid over and above the camp outing fees. Now why would any parent pay such high prices for a rented dress?

Strict action should be taken against these errant bookstores and the school authorities for indulging in such unethical pratices.