The girls, Apoorva, said she was disallowed as her father could not come to pay fee.
Holding government officials and elected representatives "morally responsible", BJP MP Varun Gandhi today shared the viral video of a girl weeping after she was not permitted to take an exam over non-payment of fee at a private school in UP's Unnao district.
"The tears of this daughter show the pain of lakhs of children who have to face humiliation over non-payment of fees," he tweeted, in Hindi. "It is the moral responsibility of officials and public representatives of every district to ensure that financial constraints do not hinder the education of children," he further said, thus seeking answers from his party's government as well.
To private institutions, he said, "Don't forget humanity. Education is not a business."
The video is from a rural town called Tola near Bangarmau, Unnao, where students were seen crying bitterly after they were kept outside the school gates and missed the mid-year exam on Monday. "I told (school management) that Papa would come today with the fee, but they pushed us out," said one of the students, Apoorva Singh, who is in Class 6.
A local BJP leader worker later cleared her dues from October to March (Rs 3,000) at the school, Bal Vidya Mandir.
After public pressure, the school management, too, said that irrespective of fee-payment status, these students would get a chance to take the missed exam on Tuesday.
It was not immediately known which class the rest of the students were in, and how much their dues were.
At least 10 students had not cleared the tuition fee since September. They stood and cried at the gates, attracting attention of locals who recorded their plight.
The local administration has started an inquiry, said a report in the Hindi news portal Jagran. It quoted the school manager as saying that the missed exams would be held again for these students.