Dhaka: Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Sunday said the government has served show-cause notices on some 1,209 educational institutions for not refunding the extra fees taken from the SSC examinees.

The educational institutions have been asked to come up with their explanations within 30 days as to why their governing bodies or managing committees should not be declared illegal as per a High Court order, Nahid said, adding that actions will be taken as per the High Court order once the deadline expires.

The Education Minister was addressing a press briefing at the Secretariat.

Nahid said a total of 3,038 educational institutions allegedly took extra fees for the SSC and its equivalent examinations in 2015.  

The government on 3 February asked the authorities concerned to return the money taken beyond the government-fixed amount within seven working days, he said.

Of the educational institutions in question, 830 returned the money while 999 informed that they did not take any extra fees and the rest 1,209 did not reply to the directives, Nahid added.

He also said they were verifying the authenticity of the claims of the 999 institutions that they did not charge extra from the students.

The government had also asked the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) to prepare a list of the private educational institutions that took additional session charge, and admission and tuition fees for the current academic year violating the admission rules, Nahid said.

‘The DSHE has already submitted its report and further directives will be issued in this regard soon,’ he said.

Earlier on 6 November last, the High Court asked all the education boards to take actions against the educational institutions that realised extra fees from the SSC candidates beyond the board-fixed ones.

In its order, the court asked the headmasters and heads of the governing bodies concerned to return the extra examination fees they had received beyond the amount set by the government by 20 January 2016.