Over 400 students denied hall tickets for failing to pay fees

A senior official from the School Education department told DT Next, after series of complaints raised from parents over various irregularities, that a fact-finding team of Tamil Nadu Commission for Protection of Child Rights conducted a detail inspection in the schools, that deliberately violated the law.

“As many as 425 students were denied hall tickets to appear for board exams in 15 schools across the State,” he said adding in some cases, the denial of hall tickets was to improve the results.

Stating that due to non-payable of tuition fees, more than 100 students were denied hall tickets, the official said that as per Rights to Education Act (RTE) rules, students once are admitted have to be made to appear for board exams and the responsibility rests with the educational institution. Accordingly, denial of hall ticket for non-payment of fees is a violation.

It was also found that 155 schools, especially private institutions, across the State have indulged in various malpractices including denial of certificates to the students by violating the RTE Act. Pointing out that various violations were reported, the official said the managements of 83 schools denied various certificates including transfer and community certificates when parents wanted to admit their children to different schools.

Quoting the data further, the official said the fact-finding team had also identified about the refusal to admit through RTE in several schools. “As many as 298 school children were denied admission through RTE,” he said adding all the children were identified and were admitted in their selection of schools through RTE.

The official said that show cause notices were served to all the schools which have violated the RTE norms.