College charges defaulting students money to regularise attendance

Mumbai: Around 371 students from Semesters 3 and 5 at the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Dadar (IHMCTAN) – popularly known as Dadar Catering College – are being fined anywhere between ₹1,000 and ₹60,000 for regularising their attendance, which will allow them to appear for their exams starting November 18. The National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology (NCHMCT), which is the apex body for education in hotel management, makes it mandatory for a student to clock 75% attendance in every semester, failing which s/he can be debarred from appearing for the exams.

Dadar Catering College principal Nisheeth Srivastava said this amount was arrived at after consultation and negotiation with students. An October 31 email sent to parents of attendance-defaulting students read, “Your ward has not complied with the NCHMCT examination rule of having a required attendance of 75%. Hence, s/he is debarred from the term-end examination scheduled for November 18. In case of any queries and clarifications, you are advised to meet the principal on November 3 or 4.”

This email resulted in the affected students approaching Srivastava, following which discussions between the two parties on how to resolve the issue began. A student requesting anonymity said that Srivastava presented them with two choices – either be debarred from appearing for the exam or pay a penalty. “We told him that we were willing to pay ₹100 for every percentage point of absence from class,” he said. “The principal did not agree. Then we suggested ₹500, but it was eventually fixed at ₹1000. So, if a student attends only 13% of the classes, he needs to pay around Rs. 62,000 in fees to regularise his attendance.”

Another Semester 3 student said that he and his mother were ill during the current academic semester, and so he could not attend classes regularly. He has sought some relaxation in the 75% attendance rule.

A Semester 5 student, who has an offer letter from a known hospitality company, said, “The principal gave us two options: to take a semester gap and pay around ₹1 lakh as semester fees or pay a penalty and get our attendance regularised.”

Srivastava said that according to the rules, students needed to have overall 75% attendance in each semester and 40% in each subject. “Despite reminders in August and October, students have not completed their classes,” he said. “Before the examination, we saw that around 371 students were not meeting the minimum attendance criterion. After using the powers I have as principal to grant a 20% relaxation in attendance, I wrote an email to the parents and also discussed it with the students. In this case, the amount of penalty was decided by the students.”

When asked about students’ objections to the amount, Srivastava said, “If the fine amount was negligible, students would have managed to pay it from their pocket money. I wanted them to realise their mistakes and therefore allowed them to decide on the amount. I have also taken an undertaking from the students, saying they will attend classes regularly starting next semester.

Some students approached the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS) to intervene in the issue. On their request, Yash Sardesai and Chetan Pednekar, chief organisers of MNVS, wrote a letter to the principal, asking him whether he had the right to collect such penalties.