Dummy Class 11-12 schools shut; 875 students hit

GURUGRAM: Two private schools in the city that allegedly ran Classes 11 and 12 without valid recognition have been ordered shut after District Education Office inspections on 17 August, leaving nearly 875 students and their families scrambling for alternatives just as the academic calendar presses on. Officials acted on a complaint that the institutions were collecting substantial fees while claiming affiliation arrangements that the named partner school has denied on affidavit.

According to the inspection trail, RB Kids School at Krishna Nagar on Basai Road was ordered closed. The campus is understood to have enrolled about 525 students, with monthly fees in the ₹10,000–15,000 range. Investigators have alleged that the school showed a fraudulent registration link with Karnal Public School. An affidavit from that side denying any such tie-up forms part of the record now before education authorities. Separately, First Step School at Bhavani Enclave was also directed to shut. Officials put its enrolment at roughly 350 students and have alleged forged affiliation claims for the senior secondary classes.

The complaint that triggered the drive was filed by Amit Yadav. Besides the two schools now closed, Lady Florence Convent on Basai Road and Himgiri School on Pataudi Road were also named in the complaint. Lady Florence Convent was cleared after it submitted an affidavit clarifying that it is recognised only up to Class 8, and inspectors found no basis to treat it as an unauthorised Class 11–12 operator. Himgiri School remains part of the named set in the complaint file, though the 17 August closures publicly detailed so far centre on RB Kids School and First Step School.

Parents left seeking transfer and fee clarity

For families paying premium monthly fees, the sudden stoppage of Classes 11 and 12 raises immediate practical questions: where students will sit for board-linked coursework, how mid-year transfers will be processed, and whether fee refunds or adjustments will follow once the closure orders are implemented on the ground. Education department practice in such cases typically requires students to shift to recognised institutions, but parents often face documentation delays and seat shortages in preferred streams.

The issue did not remain confined to the district education office. On Friday, 21 August, it was raised before the Chief Minister at a grievance meeting. The Chief Minister ordered a high-level probe into the alleged operation of unrecognised senior secondary classes and the broader question of how such campuses continued to admit students and collect fees. That direction places the matter beyond a single inspection cycle and signals administrative scrutiny of recognition, affiliation paperwork, and enforcement gaps.

Officials have not yet publicly released a full list of transfer facilitation centres or a timeline for fee-related redress in these two cases. What is clear from the inspection and complaint record is the scale: nearly 875 students across the two closed schools, high monthly fee bands at one campus, and allegation language that treats the Karnal Public School link and affiliation papers as disputed and under probe rather than as settled court findings. Lady Florence Convent’s clearance after affidavit underlines that complaint naming alone does not equal closure; verification still decides outcomes.

As the high-level probe ordered on 21 August gets underway, the verified public position remains that two schools have been shut after 17 August inspections, one named convent has been cleared for Class 8 recognition only, and the Chief Minister has sought a deeper inquiry into alleged fraudulent registration and forged affiliation claims.