South Point school has sent a notice to the parents who have not paid their children’s fees from April to September, or even for earlier months, providing them some “additional recourse” to clear their dues.

The notice from the principal says the school may consider additional fee waiver, staggered payment or extension of the deadline for clearing the dues.

The notice has been sent to around 250 parents. To avail themselves of the “additional recourse”, the parents have to apply to the school by December 19, mentioning the reasons for non-payment and “the nature of benefit being sought”. The plea will be considered only if the reason for non-payment is “strictly attributable to the pandemic”.

“We understand that the present economic situation caused by the pandemic is quite stressful for many persons and for the same reason, you might also be facing difficulties in clearing the entire outstanding amount. It is also possible that you require some more time to clear the dues and are in need of additional waivers,” the notice says.

The school has cited a Calcutta High Court order in October, which gave liberty to schools to bar students whose fees would remain unpaid till November 30 from classes. In the same order the court had asked private schools to waive 20 per cent of the tuition fees between April 2020 and one month after the schools would resume on-campus classes.

“However, we would like to take utmost care and caution while taking such an extreme step (disallowing students from classes) and would like to provide parents all opportunities to clear the unpaid dues in respect of their child’s school fees,” the notice says.

“In order to enable such parents to fully clear their dues, the school may consider providing: 1 additional waiver of fee, or 2. Facility of staggered payment, or 3. Extension of time needed to clear the dues.”

The parents’ applications will be evaluated by a committee set up by the school. “The committee will comprise a parent, a teacher and a representative of the finance department of the school,” said Krishna Damani, trustee of the school.

The parents who will not make any application by December 19 are required to clear the dues till November by that date.

If they fail to make an application or clear their dues, the school “will be constrained to assume that they are no longer interested in continuing their ward’s enrollment and the school may strike off the name of such students from its rolls in terms of the existing rules,” the notice says.

“This is an unprecedented step and as a school we also have to keep the interest of the child in mind. We do not want children to suffer because of circumstances not under their control and we also believe that parents will not default without any reason. So instead of being mechanical about it we want to give parents more opportunities to pay,” said Damani.