Pandurang Kale now has enrolled his daughter to a school far away in Shahapur town. He said, “I took the school leaving certificate on June 25, after securing her admission in another school. This happened after the school principal was transferred.”
People whose children were enrolled in a Zilla Parishad (ZP) school in Thane district’s Khardi village were in for a rude shock when they got to know in June that the school would not start Class 8 in academic year 2023-24, as promised to them. At the last minute, around 20 students from this school who had passed Class 7 had to look for seats in schools far away for Class 8.
This ZP school in Shahapur town of Thane district conducted classes till class 7. But after it was converted into Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee International School in the academic year 2016-17, locals were informed that it would organically introduce higher classes as the batches move ahead. This was under the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB), a flagship project by Vinod Tawde, the then school education minister of Maharashtra.
Following the change, many people enrolled their children in the school.
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“The MIEB was then scrapped under the MVA-led state government. We were informed that all such schools which were to run under MIEB would hereon be termed Aadarsh Shala (Model Schools) in order to continue imparting quality education upto class 10,” said Pandurang Kale, a parent from the school management committee. Parents were hopeful the school would execute the plan as promised but when the new academic year began in June, authorities said class 8 would not be started, he said.
Kale now has enrolled his daughter to a school far away in Shahapur town. He said, “I took the school leaving certificate on June 25, after securing her admission in another school. This happened after the school principal was transferred.”
The disgruntled parents have approached Thane ZP.
Adding that it was completely unexpected, another parent, Sneha Apte, said, “Our previous principal was taking all steps to ensure that class 8 would be introduced from the academic year 2023-24, and he was following up with the ZP administration regarding this. But following his transfer, a new principal was appointed and we were informed in June that there will be no class 8.”
According to ZP, however, there was no plan regarding this as yet. Stating that beginning a new class is a long process, Thane ZP CEO Manoj Jindal said, “How did parents get the impression that the school would start Class 8 this year? This must be investigated. I will also check on specific complaints like delayed school leaving certificates.”
First published on: 04-07-2023 at 21:10 IST