TBRL school students left in lurch as DRDO withdraws aid

Scores of worried parents gathered outside the Ballistics Vidyalaya, one of the 11 affected DRDO-funded schools on Monday morning. It’s on March 31 that the school received an order asking it to stop all fresh admissions. The school authorities immediately started asking parents to make alternative arrangements for their children.

It is learnt that DRDO will discontinue funding these schools from December 31 this year.

The management informed parents about the DRDO order when they came to get the results of their wards last week.

On Monday, concerned parents gathered in front of the school in large numbers. Many of them said they should have been informed earlier as now most of the schools had completed their admissions and it would be difficult for their children to get into other institutions.

Manjeet Kaur, a parent whose son was admitted to nursery class, said, “The quality of education here is impeccable and even though my son has not attended the school since his admission, the response that I have got from the school is praiseworthy. But now out of the blue they are asking us to withdraw our child when admissions to other schools are already closed. What do we do now?”

Lovely Kumar, whose children are studying in classes VII and X, said he was told to shift them elsewhere at the parent-teacher meeting on March 31. “The school told me they will issue their transfer certificate soon. But where will my children go now?”

Harvinder Batra, principal of Ballistic Vidyalaya, Ramgarh, expressed her helplessness in the matter. “I am just a medium between the higher authorities and the institution. And I don’t have the powers to go against the instructions given by the management.”

Teachers told The Indian Express that they were also unaware of the situation. Most of them said they were worried about their jobs. “Even if they transfer us to other schools, we don’t know what will be the scenario with our salaries,” said a teacher.

Speculation is rife that the actual reason for shutting down DRDO-funded schools is the financial crunch.

Both parents and teachers hope that the ministry will extend the funding till March next year so that the students don’t face any disruption in the present academic session.

Kumar said he has written to the PMO but is yet to get any response.

All the 11 schools being run by DRDO across the nation have received a similar communication from the Central ministry.