Students made to pray against Shiv Sena MP

Teachers and Class IV employees of Ryan International School at Sanpada have complained to the Maharashtra Rajya Shikshak Sena (MRSS) regarding the school making students pray against Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut as he had made education department officials take action against the school for not paying their salaries. The MRSS has said that such acts by the school would not be tolerated and have demanded that the school education ministry take action against it.

According to the written complaint submitted by the teachers, a copy of which is available with this paper, during the daily 20-minute prayer session in the morning last week, the principal had, instead of saying the regular prayers, said, ‘O Lord save us from Vinayak Raut and do not let him succeed in his efforts against the school.’ The letter further says that the principal kept praying against Raut, something that came as a surprise to everyone.

“In its regular prayers the principal prays for peace and health for everyone with special reference to Grace Pinto, the managing director and Augustin Pinto, chairman of the Ryan Group of Institutions. All the children have to repeat the prayers. We do not object to it but when the prayers start targeting individuals, it is going a little too far,” said a parent, requesting anonymity.

Parents from other Ryan International schools confirmed the same and said that some principals even prayed against parents who raised their voices against the high-handedness of the management.

Confirming the same, educationist and president of the MRSS J.M. Abhyankar said that the school was run in a dictatorial manner and the teachers and staff were being with arbitrarily. “Teachers having graduate and post-graduate qualifications are paid a pittance as salaries which is a third of the scale recommended by the 6th Pay Commission. The class IV employees are paid even lesser and the schools does not allow them any amenities that teachers and staff in other schools get,” said Mr Abhyankar.

He further added that the problem had been going on for the past few years and hence the MRSS approached Mr Raut and requested him to intervene for the sake of the aggrieved employees of the school. Mr Raut directed the deputy director to take cognisance of the complaint following which an inspection was held in the school.

“The deputy director in his notice to the school has demanded to know why the no-objection certificate of the school should not be cancelled as they have failed to adhere to the norms and have not been paying salaries to the teachers and employees as per the stipulated standards,” said Mr Abhyankar referring to the letter, a copy of which is also available with this paper.

Recently, due to various discrepancies in the running of all its schools, the Ryan Group of Institutions have been issued a blanket notice by the education department as to why the NOC to all its schools in the state should not be withdrawn.

Responding to the allegations, the management of the Ryan International Group of Institutions in a statement said, “This whole thing is assuming ridiculous proportions and endorses our stand that we are being unfairly targeted by vested political interests and seems like all avenues are being leveraged to achieve the same. Even our children and their prayers are being scanned Well, our prayer is, God forgive them.”