Some of the private schools Bengaluru have found a new way to extort money from parents. They are now demanding money to issue Transfer Certificates (TC) if the parents inform the school about the same after March 31.

Some of the parents have approached officials of the Primary and Secondary Education Department. These parents say that if they are going to change the school of their wards for the coming academic year, they have to inform the school about this before March 31, failing which they have to pay a sum upto Rs 10,000 as fine.

Incidentally, this practice by the schools violates the Karnataka Education Act which states that the TCs should not be handed to the parents and should be transferred directly by the old school to the new school where the child is admitted.

This has left the parents in a dilemma because they usually decide on changing a school only after getting the results for the current academic year, which will be out during the first week of April.

One of the parents who received such a circular from the school said, "My daughter is studying in class VI and the results will be announced on April 7. The school wants me to inform by March 31 if I want to change my child's school. This is before the results are announced. I am afraid of informing them about changing the school because what if they say my child is a poor performer just because I have decided to change the school."

One such circular issued by a reputed school in the city states: "There are several reasons for obtaining such information in advance. One of it is obvious, and is within your knowledge that the school is highly sought after and a large number of new admissions are sought every year in this institution. If the parents of a child have chosen to discontinue his/her ward from the school at the end of the academic year, he or she should inform the management well in advance that is, on or before March 31, 2018. However, in the  event of a failure to inform before March 31, the management will be forced to levy administrative charges of  9,000 towards advances paid for the outsourced programme."