Gurugram school stopped 400 students from attending online classes, allege parents

GURUGRAM: A leading private school in the city had struck off the names of around 400 students from the online class roster for non-payment of school fees, alleged parents. This is despite repeated directions from the state government and orders by the courts to private schools to not take punitive action against students for any dues in the lockdown period.
After the parents approached the district authorities and wrote letters to the state government and other school education regulatory bodies, the school restored the access to online classes, albeit with a rider that the resumption is temporary.
In a mail (accessed by TOI) sent to the parents, the school wrote, “In light of the ex-party (without hearing the School) order passed by the Commissioner, Gurugram Division, and the school has temporarily restored the online access for students whose fee remains outstanding. The matter is sub-judice and the school is obtaining the appropriate legal rights in relation to the same.”
Similar complaints have poured in from other schools in Gurugram and Faridabad.
Parents have said they are being “harassed” and have termed such responses as unconstitutional and in violation of the Right to Education.
“Students are being barred from online classes in a very dictatorial way. We have already paid fees till July in February itself. When they raised the bill for composite fee for the remaining year, parents objected and wanted the school to comply with government guidelines. We objected to the demand for additional charges for meals, transportation, laundry, etc,” said one of the aggrieved parents who didn’t wish to be named, fearing the repercussion on the child.
In the past months, the bone of contention between parents and private schools has been the charges beyond the tuition fees that the schools have allegedly been charging parents in violation of government orders that say schools should raise bills solely on tuition fees and on a monthly basis.
“The two branches have continued to issue composite fee invoices in advance, even for the second term which starts around October-end on 15th July. Parents of both branches repeatedly requested their respective schools for revised invoices with transparency towards the tuition fee component, but to no avail. Instead, they were met with stubborn refusal to comply with the law, veiled threats of coercive action against wards for non-payment as per the presented invoice,” said a member of the association of parents whose children attend this school.
Many parents have even been forced to pull out their kids as the management refused to adjust any 'excuse' for not paying fees in advance.
Based on the complaint filed by a delegation of parents, the education department issued two notices earlier this month, asking the school to abide by the directions of the government. Similar directions were issued by the Fee and Fund Regulatory Committee as well. But, parents claim that schools ignored these.
Thereafter, this association approached the High Court in Chandigarh on Tuesday. The Court stayed the school from collecting more than 40% of the composite fees and noted,“Prima-facie, it seems rather incongruous that the School should demand even the transport charges which illustratively is reflective of their mindset of undue enrichment”.