Jay Jalaram International School (JJIS) in Gujarat’s Godhra, which is under the CBI scanner for its alleged role in NEET-UG exam illegalities, was at one time among the most expensive schools in Gujarat, charging between Rs 3.25 lakh and Rs 5.5 lakh per annum from students.
After the fee regulatory committee (FRC) was introduced in 2017, the school’s fees were reduced to between Rs 44,000 and Rs 71,000 per annum.
Despite the high fees, many students from places across the country such as Odisha and Tamil Nadu came to this school, which is not even in a major city and has no educational specialisation.
With the ongoing CBI probe and the arrest of top officials of the school, this fact came to light in the probe initiated by the state education department.
“Before the FRC, the education department had sought details of fees to understand the fee structures and heads under which the fees were collected. In that period, JJIS emerged as one of the most expensive schools in Gujarat,” said a senior education department official, on condition of anonymity.
“The school has been functioning for 15-odd years, and has three branches at Boriavi, Anand and Menpara near Vanakbori.”
JJIS has both Gujarat State Education Board and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) affiliations, said Kirit Patel, DEO of Panchmahal, who had conducted the initial probe into alleged illegalities on orders from the district collector. Patel, however, said they had not recorded the statements of students and which states they were from was not known.
Kirti Raolingam, principal of the English medium school, said she cannot comment on the fee structure.
Sources privy to the developments said the education department had launched a probe to understand why students from other states chose this school and whether there were discrepancies in the school being chosen as a centre for NEET, despite other schools being available in the town and district.
Sources said the branch of the school at Menpara had been barred from conducting Gujarat state board exams after illegalities came to light about a decade ago.
