Mumbai: Schools withholding mark sheets as parents struggle to pay fees

In the wake of the pandemic potentially thousands of economically challenged parents are unable to pay school fees resulting in education institutes withholding their childrenrsquos mark sheets and leaving certificates which are mandatory for admission to collegesThough exact data can only be collected by a centralized agency midday visited Bandra Hindu Association High School in Bandra West to gain an understanding of the situation About 80 per cent of the schoolrsquos nearly two hundred students are from minority communitiesAlso read Maharashtra Despite CM Eknath Shinde snub schools find merit in lsquonohomeworkrsquoAjeet Manyal chairman of the Bandra Hindu Association said ldquoSince the start of the pandemic we had fiftyeight students whose families had approached us as they could not afford to pay fees Even though we were owed R60 lakh in fees at one point in time we asked the parents to pay what they could within reason and close the chapter as their childrsquos education and future were at stake and colleges in Mumbai would shut their admission counters soonrdquoHe added that good Samaritans had been approached by the school who volunteered to sponsor twentysix students which brought relief to the school and the families concernedKalpana Adhya chief administrator of the school said that currently six studentsrsquo unclaimed mark sheets are lying with the school due to nonpayment of fees and that they had been constantly requesting the parents via post and telephone to meet the schoolrsquos officebearers and explain their situation so that an amicable solution could be foundOffice assistant Deepika Gala who handles the schoolrsquos accounts said that the six studentsrsquo parents owe the school less than Rs 200000 collectivelyldquoMany parents have been told to pay just Rs 2000 per month which includes fees and the cost of all extracurricular activities for the overall development of the child such as visits to tribal areas museum tours four annual medical camps for students and their families menstrual hygiene workshops for girls and their mothers and waterpark visits to Lonavala In this scenario we also feel helpless when we barely have money to pay our teaching and nonteaching staff of 21 who are a valuable asset for our institutions if the standard has to be maintainedrdquo Adhya said The school has 12 teachersHasteshwar Dhotre a rickshaw driver who lost his livelihood during the pandemic and nearly R7 lakh in an alleged scam is one of the parents who has not collected his daughterrsquos SSC documents from the schoolldquoMy family has been forced to shift from Khar to Virar I can barely afford to pay the fees of one of my five children I actually feel ashamed to visit the school with my problemsrdquo said Dhotre who owes the school nearly Rs 30000Navnath Vanave education inspector of West Zone said that there was no centralised data has been collected on the subject but added the issue is taken up with the respective schools as and when individual complaints are receivedldquoSome schools give a full waiver while others settle accounts by offering discounts or an EMI optionrdquo he said