Saturday 28 May 2016

A Mumbai Girl Got 3 Lakhs After She Sued Her Coaching Class For Scoring Low HSC Marks

Here’s a lesson for all the coaching classes which think they have it easy and can pass without being noticed and duping students. With a nation full of aspiring engineers, doctors and artists, the coaching centre business is rampant and is readily cheating on parents.

But a Mumbai-based girl proved that a fraud like this isn’t always ignored and filed a lawsuit against her coaching class, and won Rs3 Lakhs as settlement, a full refund of her rs 54,000 fees and Rs 10,000 for the court expenses.

The coaching – Oxford Tutors Academy at Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri, offers home tutoring to SSC, HSC, CBSE and ICSE students.

Abhivyakti Verma, a science student had signed up for a Mathematics and Chemistry teacher in 2013, but the coaching failed to provide a Chemistry tutor for a month.

The Mathematics tutor was also from Hindi medium and could barely teach Abhivyakti.

After Abhivytakti’s mother – Neena’s repeated requests, the coaching sent a Chemistry tutor who taught the 8th grade in ICSE

Neena approached the coaching centre again, and this time, they sent an IIT student to help her out.

In the end, because of the coaching centre’s negligence, Abhivyakti ended up scoring 60% combined in Maths-Physics-Chemistry against the 83% she had scored in her SSC exam, forcing her to give up her dreams of joining the Hyderabad college she wanted to.

Abhivyakti said, “The Chemistry teacher was slow in covering portions, especially in the first six months. I was weak in Chemistry, and that it is why I had enrolled for coaching. I didn’t know what was happening. I was tense about everything. There was a time when I slipped into depression. It was my father who helped me with Chemistry. Also, the centre replaced the tutor at the last minute. The centre is responsible for my low score.”

Her mother was also disappointed as the coaching centre kept none of its promises of providing lectures, revisions and paper solving.

She said, “The teachers were incapable of teaching and because of having different tutors who had their own methods of teaching, my daughter was thoroughly confused and wasn’t prepared for the exams.”

Finally, in 2015, a frustrated Neena filed the lawsuit against the coachingcentre, but the coaching centre had other thoughts about the whole issue.

Diksha Verma, counsellor with Oxford Tutors Academy said, “We have qualified teachers. The student was weak in studies. She joined the classes late and took tuitions from other centres as well, which is why she was confused. From our side, we have provided all services. In fact, the deal was for 285 hours and we gave 350 hours of service. She is yet to pay us for the extra lectures. The teacher sent to her home used to complain regularly that the student was not doing her homework. There were other complaints as well.”