‘School forcing kids to change board’

Mumbai: Parents of Dadar's Shardashram Vidyamandir School have alleged that the school is pressuring them to shift their wards from the state board to the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) Board from the next academic year (2018-19). The parents claimed that a sudden change in the curriculum will make it difficult for the students and they are worried about the fee hike that will come with the change in the board as well.

The school has asked all the class four students' (state board) parents to proceed with admission in class five with the ICSE board. “Our students have been learning the state board syllabus since last four years and now suddenly in class five if they are asked to study another curriculum, it will be very difficult for them,” said the parent. “Moreover, with the new board, the school will obviously hike the fees in the upcoming years as every other school in the city is following the same pattern,” another parent added.  

When contacted about the parents' allegations, Subhash Jadhav, the school's administration manager, told The Asian Age that the school management had two years ago discussed about the shift of the board from state board to ICSE Board with the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA). “It was the parents' demand to go for ICSE board, and considering their demand, we applied for affiliation to the ICSE Board and the Maharashtra government.” He said, “The parents are making wrong allegations as the PTA had approved it two years back.”

According to Mr Jadhav, in the next academic year, the school will convert classes one to five to the ICSE Board and in later years, the school will gradually convert the rest of the classes, from class six to ten.

Mentioning about the fee hike issue, he further said, “As of the new batch of class one only `4,000 p.m will be the school fees and for the remaining (class two to five), it will be `2,000 pm. Other ICSE schools charge their fees in lakhs and we are giving them ICSE board in minimum cost.”