School Blues Part 2...

Parents stage protest outside Dadar school

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Hundreds of students at the English-medium section of Dadar’s Balmohan Vidyamandir stayed away from school while their parents carried out a peaceful protest outside the school for nearly three hours on Wednesday morning.
Parents were upset that they were not informed that Stds V to VII at the school were not recognised by the state government. “For the last three years, we were not aware that our children were studying at an unrecognised school,’’ a parent said. “Now it’ll be hard to shift our children to another school, too,’’ she added.
Parents were also upset over the quality of education at Balmohan. “There’s a frequent change of teachers, which disrupts the pace at which our children are studying,’’ said another parent. Despite being an English medium school, parents felt that a number of teachers could not speak proper English, a parent said.
After they stood outside the school for over two hours, the school management held a meeting with the parents. “The school’s managing trustee, Bapusaheb Rege, assured us that the school would soon get recognition,’’ said a parent.
Parents also asked the school to give children the option of studying Sanskrit and French for the SSC exam instead of a full paper in Hindi. The school, however, refused to do so.

SEEKING RECOGNITION: Parents stood outside Dadar’s Balmohan Vidyamandir for nearly three hours on Wednesday morning