Dadar school admits children, after parents apologise for coming late

Less than a week after a school in Dadar raised eyebrows by turning away students whose parents had shown up a few minutes late on admission day, the school finally allowed the children to be admitted to their institution yesterday.

mid-day had reported on the incident, and also spoken to the school administration to understand their point view

The management of Our Lady of Salvation High School in Dadar (West) approved the admissions of the 10 students who had been turned away last week - but only after the parents issued a written apology to the school management for disrupting proceedings and ‘creating chaos' in the school because of their lack of punctuality.

On May 29, latecomers at the school were asked to wait in the lobby till 4 pm, after which the school, quite literally, showed them the door, telling them to return the next day (‘Mumbai school slams door on parents who reach 5 minutes late,' May 30).

The school authorities later justified their actions, saying that they had issued strict instructions to parents and had warned them that their children's admissions could be cancelled, if they did not reach the school premises on time.

"Parents were made to wait the entire day and their admissions were not confirmed. The next day, they tried meeting the school principal and were, yet again, sent home. They were finally called back on Tuesday.

Finally, the admission of their kids was approved and they finished paying the fees," said Sudarshan Mandlik, activist and local leader. The school spokesperson had explained that the purpose behind sending back latecomers was to maintain discipline in the school.

"A bunch of them came late, disrupting the entire process, and so we asked them to wait till all the admission formalities were over for others. We never said that their admissions were cancelled," said the spokesperson of the school.

Parents were happy that the school finally approved admissions on Tuesday. "We were worried that we might have to look for admissions in another school, which would have been difficult so close to the beginning of the new academic year. We are glad the school considered our problem," said a parent.