Recently, Kunming citizen Ms. Yang told reporters that last year, she went to Kunming Winston English Training Institution Wuyue Square Campus to register for children to learn English, when she spent 12,500 yuan to buy a year of English training courses, the child was less than a year old, and renewed 23,000 yuan of courses, but the new course has not yet started, the training institution suddenly closed on October 8. On the afternoon of October 8, the reporter visited the two campuses of The Winston English Training Institution in Kunming and found that the gates were closed and some parents of students gathered to discuss how to defend their rights. On October 13, the relevant departments announced the coordination plan, but the parents of the students disagreed.
The doors of training institutions are closed
On October 8, the reporter came to the Winston English Wuyue Plaza Campus and found that the training institution had been closed and suspended, and the legal person information and "notice to all the faculty and staff and parents of the students" were posted inside the glass door, and the relevant equipment could be seen through the glass.
Staff and parent notices are posted on the doors of winston English Joy City campus
"Everything inside is still there, and the evacuation is in a hurry, so the layout inside the institution is exactly the same as usual." Mr. Li, a parent of the student, said. It is understood that Kunming Winston English in Xishan District Joy City and Wuyue Square two campuses, have been closed. Teacher Zhao, a staff member of Kunming Winston English Wuyue Plaza Campus, introduced that on October 7, the staff of the two campuses were still working normally, "We suddenly received a notice of suspension at 7 p.m. on October 7, and we did not go to work the next day." ”
Although the institution has been empty, many parents of students have gathered at the door. "Suddenly received this news, everyone was overwhelmed, so come here to see and discuss how to defend their rights." Ms. Wang, a parent of the student, said.
Parents are registering information
The reporter learned that on October 7, Winston English published an "important notice to Winston students and parents" on the WeChat public account of the Winston Student Service Center, announcing that it would suspend face-to-face courses in all campuses from October 8. The notice announced the response: "Winston will convert offline classes to the online Vinston Cloud platform. All students can continue to take the original course on the Vinston Cloud platform. We will also actively contact quality educational institutions to strive for curriculum replacement. But some parents of students in Winston, Kunming, said they had not received any notice and no staff had come to take over the matter.
In addition, on October 8, Weibo user "Hello Changsha" released a message saying that the Winston English Training Institution located in the Yuhua District of Changsha City also "ran away", and more than 1,000 students failed to refund the fee.
For the follow-up processing work how to carry out, when to carry out and other issues, the reporter called the headquarters of Hunan Winston Training School twice on October 8 and October 17, the legal representative and relevant person in charge of Kunming Winston English Training School, but failed to contact successfully. How the company will carry out "follow-up work" is still unknown.
Employee: "We are also owed wages"
According to the parents of the students, the reason why they are so anxious is because the sudden closure of the training institution has caused them a lot of losses. "I spent 23,000 yuan last year to sign up for English training for my children, went to school for a year and a half, and then renewed 13,000 yuan in June this year, and then closed the door before I took a few classes." Ms. Li, a parent of the student, said.
Mr. Tian, a parent, said Ms. Li was "already very lucky." "I just came to report to my child in September this year, spent more than 54,000 yuan to buy 2 years of courses, before the child has been taking experience classes, until now the institution is closed, not a formal class has been attended." I heard that some parents paid 70,000 or 80,000 yuan for training, and now these funds have not landed. Mr. Tian said.
Not only parents of students, but also staff at training institutions said they were also owed wages. "Our performance department's performance commission in July and August and the salary in September have not yet been paid, almost 5,000 yuan per person, while other departments have not yet paid the salary in September." Now that the agency is shutting down, there is no way to recover the money. Teacher Zhao said.
According to the statistics of students' parents and staff, there are more than 400 students and more than 40 staff members in the two Campuses of Winston English in Kunming. In the three "Winston Activist Groups" formed by the parents of the students, there are nearly 1,000 members, and they are still increasing.
Some parents of students reported that on October 8, the day the institution closed its doors, they reported the case to the police station in the jurisdiction, and also called the mayor's hotline and contacted the education and sports bureaus of Wuhua and Xishan districts, hoping to seek help from the relevant departments. On the same day, the staff of the police station, the street office and the education and sports bureau of the district came to organize the registration information of the parents of the students. A staff member of the Xishan District Education and Sports Bureau who was present at the time said: "For this matter, we will fully cooperate with the relevant departments to coordinate and deal with it." ”
The relevant departments provide course replacement
Under the organization of the relevant departments, the parents of the students in Winston, Kunming completed the information registration and expressed their demands to the relevant departments.
"Parents of our students all want to get the remaining tuition back, but it is difficult to achieve in the short term. Considering that the child's education cannot be delayed, we expressed our appeal to the Education and Sports Bureau, which provided us with educational assistance and proposed a curriculum replacement plan, which was used to replace the courses of other training institutions with the remaining tuition fees in Winston. Ms. Li introduced.
Course Replacement Notice (Screenshot)
On October 13, after the first round of consultation, parents of students in two campuses of Kunming Winston English Training School received the course replacement plan announced by the relevant departments. "The replacement plan given by Wuhua here is: parents can choose up to 5 of the 8 training institutions for free training for about 6 months. Based on the amount of tuition remaining in Winston, the number of training institutions selected is determined, and the more tuition fees are left, the more institutions can choose to replace. "Parents of Kunming Winston English Wuyue Plaza Campus introduced.
As can be seen from the Winston English Joy City Rights Protection Group, the replacement plan proposed by the Xishan District Education and Sports Bureau includes: providing 8 non-disciplinary training institutions for parents to choose from, and providing 4 English subject training institutions at the request of some parents; each student's parents can choose 4 institutions at the same time for a 3-month free course study.
However, as soon as the plan came out, many parents still put forward their opinions. "Four or five extracurricular trainings at the same time, how can children eat and consume?" "What can you learn in a short period of 3 months?" With various opinions, the parent representatives met again with the Education and Sports Bureau and the community staff to discuss the curriculum replacement plan.
On October 15, parents of students from Kunming Winston English Joy City Campus came to the office of the Xishan District Education and Sports Bureau and reflected their demands at the coordination meeting: the selected training institutions should not start classes at the same time; extend the free teaching time; and provide more courses to choose from.
"For this matter, as the education authority, we are trying to help you reduce your losses, and at the same time, we can meet your demands as much as possible within a reasonable range." A staff member surnamed Zhang of the Xishan District Education and Sports Bureau told the parent representatives at the coordination meeting. After consultation, the staff member said that the Education and Sports Bureau will continue to communicate with the training institutions that agree to the course replacement, strive to extend the free training time, and find more training institutions, expand the scope of parents' choices, and strive to implement the course replacement as soon as possible. At present, the specific curriculum replacement plan of the two campuses is still under further negotiation.
Lawyer: Whether to find a court or to find arbitration to solve it depends on the terms of the contract
Lawyer Zhang Yunlong, a senior partner at Yunnan Tianwaitian Law Firm, introduced that there are many ways for parents and staff of students to protect their rights.
"The first way of relief is to complain to the local consumer association, or to report it through the communication channels and hotlines of the municipal leaders of the training institution's registered place." The second way of relief is to report the case to the public security organ (usually the police station) where the victim's household registration is located. If the training institution's behavior is suspected of illegal fund-raising, fraud or other serious illegal situations, the public security organs will file a case for investigation. The third remedy is to bring a lawsuit against a jurisdiction, including a court or arbitral institution. Lawyer Zhang Yunlong also introduced that whether to sue the court or the arbitration institution, it is necessary to check the terms of the contract signed by the parents of the students and the training institution. If it is expressly agreed that the dispute shall be resolved by arbitration by an arbitration commission, it can only apply to the arbitration commission for arbitration; if it is agreed that the court or arbitration will resolve, or if there is no agreed dispute resolution institution, it is necessary to go to the people's court where the training institution is located to file a lawsuit.
As for whether to prosecute, Zhang Yunlong also suggested: "We should consider whether the training institution has property clues, and pay attention to collecting and retaining relevant evidence." If a contract dispute is used as the cause of action, parents need to prepare the contract, payment voucher, WeChat SMS communication record and screenshots of the web page information that can display the account holder, the remaining lesson hours, and the remaining value, and indicate the source. ”