Police were called in on Wednesday to disband a three-hour demonstration of parents protesting against the management of St Xavier’s School for not allowing their children to join online classes for not paying tuition fees.

The parents were demanding that the school not charge fees for the duration of the lockdown, something the school principal said was simply not possible for reasons of viability as 40 per cent of students had not paid for the last five months.

Principal P.J. James said, “There are 2,925 students studying in St Xavier’s. Of them, 1,138 students have not paid their tuition fees for the past five months. How will we run the school?”

After the intervention of Chas circle officer Dwarika Prasad Dwivedi, an understanding was reached with the agitating parents and the school management. By the end of the day, 200 parents had paid the fees.

“After the talks, it was decided that children of those who submit at least one month’s tuition fee now would be allowed to take part in online classes,” Dwivedi said.

St Xavier’s is the only ISCE school in Bokaro town.

Father James explained that the school employed about 100 teachers and 160 administrative and support staff including drivers, attendants and gardeners and others.

“The salaries paid to them are from the amount that the school collects charging fees from the students. The fees have remained unchanged since last year,” he said, adding that St Xavier’s was the first school in Bokaro to begin online classes.

The principal explained that the accounting software automatically disabled names of students who have not paid fees for five months. “Names of many students got removed from the system automatically. Their names will get restored as soon as they pay the fees. There is no human intervention involved,” he explained.

District president of Jharkhand Parents Association (JPA) Mahendera Kumar Ray, who was leading the agitation claimed they were being “harassed in the name of online education”, adding that the quality of classes weren’t up to the mark.

“Practically, it is parents who are teaching their children at their homes not the school,” he claimed.

Other parents indicated they were not happy with the outcome of their agitation, which began at 10am and was wound up by 1pm after the meeting with the school management and Chas circle officer.