Student forced to stand outside class for failing to pay Rs 6,000 fees

Mahatma Education Societyrsquos Pillai HOC International School in Panvel claimed that the punishment meted out to the child was over a different issueAditi name changed is too young to even understand what social embarrassment means But the nineyearold is mortified to go back the school where she was allegedly humiliated over nonpayment of feesThe child was allegedly made to stand outside the classroom on Monday along five other students of Pillai Group of Institutionsrsquo Mahatma Education Societyrsquos Pillai HOC International School in Panvel as punishment for failing to pay the term fee of Rs 6000Also Read No fees no class is the policy at this Mumbai schoolThe alleged humiliation came to light only the next afternoon when Aditi began crying while getting ready for school ldquoShe said she didnrsquot want to go to schoolrdquo said Vikram Kamble 31 Aditirsquos father and resident of Rees village near PanvelThe traumaKamble got a worrying call from his wife while at work Aditirsquos school starts at 1230 pm who told him of the ordeal their daughter had just revealed He said he wanted to talk to Aditi but she was inconsolable and in no state to speakldquoWhen I called back 40 minutes later she was more settled and recalled the humiliationrdquo he said ldquoThe ridiculous reason cited was that a measly sum of Rs 6000 fee for the third term had not been paidrdquoAccording to Kamble who is an alum of the same school the fee structure had been recently changed ldquoUsually we pay only twice a year in March and April This time they split the fees into three terms The fee for the first and second terms had been paid We had never defaulted on fee payments in the pastrdquoRead Story Mumbai class 11 student urges girls from welloff families to pay full feesRefusing the lay the blame solely on the teacherrsquos doors he felt that she must have been pressured by the school management to exact such a punishment ldquoI canrsquot blame her She was only doing her job This is not a personal issuerdquoHe blamed the school management for its ldquounprofessionalrdquo conduct ldquoIt could have communicated with me and settled the matter amicably I demand an unconditional apology from the managementrdquoNot the first timeMondayrsquos ordeal allegedly wasnrsquot the first Aditi had allegedly suffered the same punishment last month but kept mum ldquoOn January 28 the same teacher made her stand outside class as we had not paid the feerdquo said the father ldquoBut my daughter didnrsquot tell us at the timerdquoThe Panvel school isnrsquot the first to resort to highhanded measures over pending fee dues On January 17 a teacher in Thanersquos Gyanodaya Vidya Mandir beat up a sevenyearold mercilessly and pulled chunks of her hair out over delay in payment of fees