School name change upsets pupils’ parents

Mumbai: Dadar-based Sharada-sharam Vidyamandir, which changed the affiliation of its primary section from the state board to ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) upsetting a section of the parents, has added ‘international’ to the institution's name, apparently without the approval of the relevant authorities.

The parents allege that the school does not have adequate infrastructure for the ICSE board courses.

According to the state government guidelines, an institution must follow some norms for starting a parallel national or international board school. In this institution’s case, the school has decided to scrap the state board (SSC) for class 1 to 5 and shift these students to Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations syllabus. The conditions for starting a parallel board include proper infrastructure, playground, library facilities, provisional affiliation from the board, approval from the state government and the no-objection certificate from the civic body.

The aggrieved parents submitted a petition to the state education department and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) last week.  

“Some days back we were protesting about the shift from the state board to ICSE board and now we see that they have put up a banner outside the school which says SVM International School, which is ridiculous. We as parents are yet to take admissions as we are not up for the board shift and the school authorities are going ahead doing whatever they please,” said a parent.