Students ‘detained’ on first day of school for unpaid fees - More than 160 students were barred from entering their classrooms...

Posted by Never Ending Story | Labels: News/Berita

Students ‘detained’ on first day of school for unpaid fees

By KANG SOON CHEN
educate@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 160 students were barred from entering their classrooms at an international school in Jalan Ampang on Monday because their parents had apparently failed to pay the school fees on time.

The students – over 100 primary school pupils and 60 secondary school students – were “detained” at the library and the arts room, respectively, from 8am till lunchtime on the first day of school.

A parent alerted The Star about the students’ predicament.

But the school stood its ground and maintained that it had little choice but to keep the students who had failed to pay their fees on time out of class.

The principal said it was a policy that students paid the fees of the next term before the current term ended.

Showing a letter dated Nov 18, she said, the school administration had sent four letters informing parents about the due date and the consequences of late payment.

“We have no choice but to stop the students from entering the classrooms when their parents did not pay the school fees,” she said.

Parents expressed unhappiness over their children’s detention.

“Imagine the distress the students were put under when they were singled out in front of their friends and not allowed to attend lessons on the first day of school,” said one parent.

She claimed that parents were never informed about the due date to pay the fees.

“We were only told that we would get a 20% discount if we pay before Nov 30,” she said.

After paying the school fees of her children, aged 12 and 14, the parent was shocked when she was asked to pay an additional 20% as penalty for late payment.

School fees for a student in the international school cost up to RM3,500 per semester.