The standoff between parents of the 42 children of the Army Public School threatened with debarment and the school management continued as the latter refused to withdraw the notice issued to the “defaulters”.
Parents gathered in front of the school in J.C. Nagar (formerly known as the Parachute Regiment School) for a silent demonstration on Friday, protesting the alleged harassment of their children over the issue and the decision to debar them.
Satish Dwivedi, whose two children are studying in Classes 6 and 7, said they had not been issued identity cards. Melquier Celestine, another parent, said the school had not issued marks card of these 42 children, nor of last year’s.
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The deadlock began when the school changed its name to Army Public School this year. The parents alleged that they had been asked to pay readmission fees for the “new school”, even in the face of a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) order to the contrary. The management stood by its decision to not allow students to continue if the full fees remained unpaid till January 2, saying that the CBSE directive came in August, after 95 per cent of the students had already paid. School officials said they had sought CBSE’s approval for the fees and sent two reminders, but did not get any reply. “If the board replies that we have to give back the money, we will refund the amount to students,” one said.