A school’s claim about its affiliation to the Central Board of Secondary Education has fallen flat. On Saturday, over 500 agitated parents
stormed the MKH Sancheti Public School after the school management all of a sudden announced closure of operations. The reason: the school, managed by Oswal Education Society and headed by Ajay Sancheti since 2004, had failed to get CBSE affiliation. In the process the school’s decision to discontinue operations has jeopardised the future of hundreds of its students. The school conducts classes from nursery to std 7.
Sancheti wanted to open a girls hostel at the land that was taken on meagre lease of Re 1 per month for educational purpose, parents alleged. The irate parents, who wanted to question Sancheti over the issue, waited for over three hours for him to arrive.
Sancheti told the parents that the school was being closed from the next academic session “to give them enough time to admit their wards to another school”. To pacify frayed tempers, Sancheti also assured the parents that the school would not be closed down. But his assurance came with a rider — no guarantee about any possible CBSE affiliation in future. This apart Sancheti also refused the parents’ demand to put his assurance on paper.
Some parents told TOI that the management did not take them into confidence before arriving at a decision to shut the school. Their repeated attempts to contact both Sancheti and school management members went futile.
The parents were told that the issue would be discussed and resolved by holding meetings, but none from the management including Sancheti, attended the four such scheduled meetings. Finally, after continuous pressure from the parents, a meeting with the school management was scheduled for Saturday at 9.30 am.
When parents arrived on Saturday, they were told that the meeting had been rescheduled for Monday. This infuriated the parents and they grilled the lone management member Suraj Chhajed and school manager Sanjay Jain — who surprisingly expressed ignorance about the changed schedule of the meeting.