Khar school fee row: Parents refuse to meet principal

The fee dispute between Mumba Devi Vidya Mandir school in Khar and students’ parents remains unresolved.

The fee dispute between Mumba Devi Vidya Mandir school in Khar and students’ parents remains unresolved.

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On Saturday, the school principal, Rupa Patil, invited protesting parents who had filed an first information report against the school for allegedly confining their children in the library over the fee dispute, to a meeting.

The parents, however, refused to attend the meeting in the absence of an independent authority to moderate the meeting.

“The parents were invited to a meeting but they refused to meet the principal except in the presence of a third party such as the state government and NGOs,” said Rajeev Patel, member of the Forum for Fairness in Education, an NGO that has been fighting for the aggrieved parents.

“When the principal refused to call outside parties to the meeting, the parents decided not to meet her.”

On Friday, the Khar police had inspected the school after the parents complained that their children had been punished and locked up in the library.

In June, the school had hiked the fees and asked parents to pay the entire amount in a single instalments. Some of the parents refused to do so and therefore their children were punished, they claimed.

The parents now plan to write a letter to the school authorities saying they are ready to have a dialogue but only in the presence of independent authorities.