Education Services
The Consumer's Ombudsman mediates in disputes that consumers have with any private provider of informal or formal education and training of all levels (in case of underage consumers, the complaint is submitted by their guardians). In this context, complaints may concern foreign language centres, nurseries, kindergartens, primary-secondary schools, private vocational training institutes, lifelong learning centres and colleges.
The authority's competence concerns, mainly, the satisfaction of consumers' financial claims arising from contracts concluded with private educational providers. Complaints concerning the evaluation of the quality of educational programmes, are not being considered, since the Authority cannot give a competent decision. Also, the Authority does not mediate in disputes that exist with public educational institutions (schools, universities, etc.), since these are explicitly excluded from out-of-court settlement procedures under the current legislation.
