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Trustee, principals of school booked: When it becomes all about the money
Trustees and principals of a Mumbai school were booked for refusing to allow two brothers to attend classes due to unpaid fees. This case highlights the issue of increasing numbers of students being humiliated for non-payment of fees. The father of two daughters was laid off and unable to pay their fees, resulting in their prohibition from entering school prior to the SSC board exams. Another parent urged the school to allow monthly payments instead of lump sum, as per the 2019 amendment of The Maharashtra Educational Institutions Act.
MUMBAI: When the trustee and principals of a Kalina-based school were booked on Tuesday for refusing to allow two brothers to attend classes and forced them to sit outside classrooms, as their parents could not pay the fees, it brought into focus an issue that has been simmering for years. Many such cases have now come to the fore.
The trustee, principals of primary and secondary sections of St Mary School were booked by Vakola police after an FIR was registered based on a complaint lodged by the mother of the two students.
She alleged that both her sons, one in class 8 and the other in class 2, were made to sit outside the class for the past four months, as she could not pay their school fees. The pending fee of one of the children was ₹7500 and that of the other was ₹19,000, she told the police.
The complainant, Shabnam Sheikh, said that her husband, who worked as driver, suffers from tuberculosis because of which he skips work often. This has led to their financial situation worsening over the past couple of years, she said.
However, as appalling as this case might sound, it is not an isolated instance. Increasing number of cases of humiliation of students in the school due to non-payment of fees have come to fore in the last few years.
Kiran Kadam, a father of two daughters studying at a Navi Mumbai-based school, was laid off from his marketing job in July 2014 after his employer went out of business. Up until 2017, he paid his daughters’ tuition fees but after that it got difficult for him.
“My older daughter was in class 10 in 2018–19, while the younger one was in class 5. I asked the administration of the school for some time so I could pay in installments. Both of my daughters were prohibited from entering school prior to the SSC board exams.
“I urged them to allow my daughters to take the examinations and to keep their mark sheets and diplomas until I paid the tuition fee. My older daughter missed that year’s SSC board exam since the school did not agree,” said Kadam.
After complaining to the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR), Kadam managed to get his elder daughter’s school leaving certificate.
In another case, a city-based school parent Amol Sawant and several others came together and urged school management to allow them to pay school fees monthly instead of half-yearly.
“I am a security guard in a private company. My son was stopped from writing his exams due to non-payment of fees of ₹4,000. After intervention by the education officer, the school allowed him to appear for his exams.
“This year the school increased the fees from ₹24,000 to ₹31,000 and asked us to pay in lumpsum amount. My son and daughter both are studying in the same school. How can I manage ₹62,000 at a time?” He along with 50 parents sent a letter to management requesting that they be allowed to pay fees monthly. “But in the last discussion, the management told us to pay fees on a quarterly basis. Discussion is going on,” added Sawant.
Nitin Dalavi, an education activist said, “As per the 2019 amendment of The Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fee) Act, 2011 parents have a right to pay fees every month and no school management can stop them. There are numerous cases where pupils are traumatised by ridicule or prohibited from taking the exam. Non-payment of fees is an issue between parents and school, and no student must suffer. Considering this the state government should act against such schools.”