Banadir Language School
Refund and Cancellation Policy
Banadir Language School
Version 1.0
Date published: TO BE COMPLETED: date this policy goes live on the website
Next review date: TO BE COMPLETED: date 12 months after publication
Owner: Omar Ahmed, founder and headmaster
This policy is short on purpose. There are four rules. Nothing else applies. If you would like it read to you, or explained in Somali, please ask us using the details in Section 8.
1. The four rules
Rule 1. Cancel before your first class of the month, and you get your money back in full.
If you tell us you want to stop before you attend your first class of that month, we refund that whole month. No reason is needed and no fee is taken.
Rule 2. After your first class of the month, that month runs and is not refunded.
Once you have attended one class in a month, the month is yours. You keep the classes, the replays and the materials until the month ends, and we do not refund it. You may still stop, and we will not bill you again for the next month.
Rule 3. Miss a class and you receive the recording plus a class credit, valid three months.
You do not lose a class you missed. You get the recording of that class through your own login, and you get one class credit. The credit is valid for three months from the date of the class you missed.
Rule 4. Refunds are returned by the same route the money arrived, inside fourteen days.
Money goes back the way it came. A payment made by mobile wallet is refunded to that wallet. A payment made by card is refunded to that card. We do this within 14 days of agreeing the refund.
That is the whole policy. There are no other refund rules, no admin fees, and no penalty for leaving.
2. What the rules mean in practice
Fees are monthly, per student, paid in advance. So a refund is always about one month, never about part of a class or a fraction of a week.
"Your first class of the month" means the first class you actually attend in that billing month. Not the first class on the timetable. If a class was on the timetable on the 3rd and you did not join it, and you first join on the 10th, then the 10th is your first class of the month.
Attending means joining the live class. Watching a replay is not attending. If you never joined a live class in that month and only watched replays, Rule 1 still applies to you.
A class credit is not money. It cannot be cashed out and it is not a refund. It is a class you have not had yet, held for you for three months.
How a class credit is used: TO BE COMPLETED: how the school lets a student spend a class credit, for example a catch up session, or an extra class in another group at the same level. Ask your teacher and they will arrange it.
Class credits expire three months after the missed class. We will remind you TO BE COMPLETED: number of days, recommended 14 before a credit expires.
If you leave the school, unused credits end when your login closes, unless you tell us you plan to come back within their three month life. Tell us and we will hold them.
3. Three worked examples
Example 1. Amina cancels before her first class of the month
Amina studies General English at the Intermediate level. She pays $25 on the 5th of each month.
On the 5th of the month she pays $25 as usual. Her first class of the month is on the 7th. On the 6th her family situation changes and she writes to the school to say she has to stop.
She has not attended any class in this month yet.
Rule 1 applies. The school refunds the full $25.
Amina paid by M-Pesa, so the $25 goes back to the same M-Pesa number, within 14 days of the school agreeing the refund. Her billing stops. Her login stays open for 5 working days so she can collect her materials.
Example 2. Yusuf cancels after two classes
Yusuf studies Business and Academic English. He pays $30 on the 1st of each month.
He pays $30 on the 1st. He attends class on the 3rd and again on the 6th. On the 8th he writes to say the class time no longer works with his job and he wants to stop.
He has already attended his first class of the month, on the 3rd.
Rule 2 applies. The month runs. The $30 is not refunded.
What Yusuf still gets, because he paid for the month:
- every remaining class in that month, if he wants to attend,
- the replays for those classes, for 14 days each,
- the materials for the month.
What happens next: the school stops the billing, so nothing is taken on the 1st of the following month. Yusuf owes nothing more. If he comes back later, he starts again with a new monthly payment.
Example 3. Khadija misses three classes while she is ill
Khadija studies Advanced English. She pays $30 on the 12th of each month. Her class runs twice a week.
She becomes ill and misses classes on the 15th, the 19th and the 22nd. She tells her teacher. Nobody asks her for a doctor's note.
Rule 3 applies to each missed class. Khadija receives:
- the recording of each of the three classes, through her own login, and
- three class credits, each valid three months.
The credit from the class on the 15th expires three months later, on the 15th. The other two expire on their own dates in the same way.
Rule 2 also applies. Khadija attended a class earlier in that month, so the month is not refunded. She is not out of pocket in the way that matters, because she keeps every class she missed as a recording and as a credit.
An important detail about the replay clock: a lesson replay stays on the platform for 14 days after the class, then it is deleted. So Khadija should watch the recordings within 14 days. Her class credits last three months, but the recordings do not. If she is too ill to watch in time, she should tell her teacher, and the teacher will cover the material with her using a credit.
4. When the school cancels a class
If we cancel, it is our fault, and it must never cost you.
We will tell you as soon as we know, on TO BE COMPLETED: the channel used for class messages, for example the class WhatsApp group, and by email.
Then one of these happens:
- We re-run the class at another time in the same month. This is what we try first.
- If we cannot re-run it, you get one class credit, valid three months, the same as a class you missed, and there is nothing to claim. We add it ourselves.
- If we cancel more than TO BE COMPLETED: number, recommended 2 classes in one month and cannot re-run them, we refund that whole month, even if the month has already started and even if you have attended classes in it. Rule 2 does not apply when the failure is ours.
- If we close a course or end a timetable, we give 30 days notice and refund any month you have paid for but not yet had.
You do not have to ask for any of this. We apply it and then we tell you what we did.
5. How to ask for a refund
Write to us. Email info@banadirschool.com, or send a message to TO BE COMPLETED: school WhatsApp number.
Tell us four things:
- the student's full name,
- the course,
- the month you are asking about,
- the payment route you used, and the number or reference the money came from.
You do not have to give a reason. We may ask what went wrong, because we want to fix it, but you never have to answer.
What happens then:
| Step | Our deadline |
|---|---|
| We confirm we received your request | 3 working days |
| We tell you yes or no, in writing, with the reason | 5 working days |
| The money leaves us | Within 14 days of agreeing the refund |
If we say no, we will tell you which of the four rules we applied and why. If you disagree, use the Complaints Procedure. Its fourth step reaches a contact outside the school, so a refund argument with the school never has to end with the school.
6. How the money comes back
Refunds return by the same route they arrived. This protects you, and it is also how we make sure money reaches the right person.
| You paid by | We refund to |
|---|---|
| Somali mobile wallet | The same wallet number |
| M-Pesa | The same M-Pesa number |
| Debit or credit card | The same card |
| PayPal | The same PayPal account |
| Remittance transfer | A transfer back to the sender |
If somebody else paid for you, for example a relative living abroad, the refund goes back to the person who paid, because that is the route the money came from. We will tell both of you when it is sent.
If the original route no longer works, for example a closed wallet or an expired card, write to us and we will agree another route with you in writing. This is the only time money goes back a different way.
Transfer charges. We refund the fee you paid to the school. We cannot refund a charge that your bank, wallet, card issuer or remittance service took for itself, because that money never reached us. We will tell you the exact amount we are sending.
7. Things this policy does not do
- It does not charge you a fee for leaving. There is no cancellation fee.
- It does not lock you into a term, a semester or a year. Every month stands alone.
- It does not require a doctor's note, a letter, or an explanation for a missed class.
- It does not take away any right you have under the law of the country where the student lives.
8. Contact
The school
Omar Ahmed, founder and headmaster
Email: info@banadirschool.com
Phone or WhatsApp: TO BE COMPLETED: school phone number
Independent outside contact, if you are not satisfied with the school's answer
Salim, TheJamah
Email: hello@thejamah.com
Phone or WhatsApp: +1 631 417 0416
Salim is not employed by the school and does not report to the founder. TheJamah built the school's systems. He has agreed to receive concerns from parents, students and staff independently, and you may write to him without speaking to the school first.
9. Related documents
- Terms and Conditions
- Privacy Policy
- Complaints Procedure
- Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
All are published on the school website. Ask and we will send you a copy.