Gurgaon: Three Shalom Hills students denied entry after non-payment of fees
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Gurgaon: Three Shalom Hills students denied entry after non-payment of fees

On April 10, when the children reached the school, they were told they were no longer students of the school.

Gurgaon: Three Shalom Hills students denied entry after non-payment of fees

The protest outside Shalom Hills International School in Sushant Lok, Gurgaon, continued for a second day on April 11 after three students of classes I, VII and IX were denied entry due to non-payment of school fees. 

On April 10, when the three children reached school, they were told that they were no longer students of the school. The school management refused to take them in, as their parents had not paid the increased fee and protested against the hike.

According to parents, the children were also not allowed to attend classes and sent home on April 3, as their parents had refused to pay the annual charges.

“Our new session started on March 28 and when we went to school, we were informed that our names had been struck off and we were given transfer certificates,” said Snigda Dembla, a Class VII student.

Parents, however, claimed they hadn’t received any transfer certificate from the school.

After the April 3 incident, parents had met Neelam Bhandari Nanda, the district education officer (DEO), seeking help in the matter. Following this, the DEO issued an order on April 7, stating that the school should not take any action against students in the matter till the fee-hike issue was settled.

When the school flouted the DEO's order by not allowing the three students, parents of these students, along with others, stood outside the school trying to talk to the management. 

“We filed a case in the High Court in September last year regarding arbitrary fee hikes under the development charges category," said Ramphal Sheoran, parent of two of the students who weren’t allowed to attend class. "We have been paying the tuition fee since then. We will also send a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office on April 17.”

Sheoran is also the legal advisor of Haryana Abhibhavak Ekta Manch, a group protesting fee hikes in private schools.

The school management said it had talked to parents several times and requested them to pay the fee, but since the parents had not done so for the past two years, they had to take strict action.

“We have issued transfer certificates to students for non-payment of fees for the past two years. We cannot tolerate the negligence any more,” said Atul Bhatt, principal, Shalom Hills International School.

Last week, parents from 40 private schools, including DPSG, Ryan International, Salwan Public School, Blue Bells Model School, GD Goenka, Shiv Nadar and some schools from Faridabad, took part in a car rally to protest against the fee hike by private schools.

The disgruntled parents had earlier handed over a memorandum to divisional commissioner D Suresh at his residence, seeking his intervention. On April 9, a number of parents from Gurgaon and Faridabad had also protested at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against the fee hike.