Parents allege negligence as Noida school bars students for coming late

Noida: The Gautam Budh Nagar Parents Welfare Society (GBPWS) on Monday alleged that a private school in Noida committed negligence by not letting around 10 students inside the campus for being late to school

Noida: The Gautam Budh Nagar Parents Welfare Society (GBPWS) on Monday alleged that a private school in Noida committed negligence by not letting around 10 students inside the campus for being late to school. According to the parents, the students were left unattended without a guardian outside the school in the morning after the school closed its gates.

Parents allege negligence as Noida school bars students for coming late

Amit Aggarwal, a parent of a student at Cambridge School, Noida, said that after dropping his children to the school at around 7.30am on Monday, he was leaving for work at around 8am, when he saw around 10 students of the school standing outside the gate with two adults in tow.

“I stopped to enquire about the matter and I got to know that the school administration had refused to take the students inside the school premises as they were late by about 10 minutes. Out of the 10 students, only two —a Class 5 and a Class 6 student were accompanied by their parents while the other students were alone,” said Aggarwal.

Aggarwal added that some of the students told him that their parents have now left for work after locking their homes and they cannot go back home. For about 30 minutes, the 10 students struggled to get a chance to speak to their teachers, he said.

Seeing their ordeal, Aggarwal informed the GBPWS representatives about the matter and they called up a teacher at the school.

Manoj Kataria, the founder of GBPWS, said that after contacting one of the teachers at the school on phone, the students were taken inside the campus by the school administration.

“The school administration should never act in such an irresponsible manner. The students may not be able to go back home and will wander around in the city. Moreover, some of them were girl students and leaving them without a guardian outside the school is a major act of negligence on the part of the school administration,” said Kataria.

Kataria added the GBPWS will submit a memorandum in this regard to the district education department, requesting them to amend the rule at all private and government schools to allow students inside the campus even if they are late.

“In order to teach discipline, the school can penalise the children in various ways after taking them inside the campus. However, not allowing them to enter at all is an invitation for a mishap,” said Kataria.

However, school officials refuted the allegations and said that the students were with their parents and for being late, the parents were asked to take their children home.

“Students need to be disciplined and the school also follows some rules. In situations when the students are late to school, their parents are asked to take the student back home. The allegations that students were without any guardian at the school gate are false,” said a school official, requesting anonymity.

The district inspector of schools (DIOS), Dharmveer Singh, said that he is not aware of the matter. “The parents have not yet submitted a complaint in this regard. The education department will definitely look into the matter once it is brought to our notice,” he said.