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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, June 10: Even as agitating members of the Vissanji Academy Parents’ Association (VAPA) went on an indefinite strike from today seeking recognition to the VAPTA (the Parent-Teacher Association) among other demands, the elite school’s administrator and the principal have resigned.
The parents have been agitating since May 1 against the school management’s hiking the fees in the primary and secondary levels from Rs 2,400 to Rs 8,365, the money to be deposited in advance at the beginning of the term in June.
They are also protesting the school’s practice of charging a lump sum of Rs 33,000 as fees for the three years of pre-primary education besides the management’s reluctance to recognise the VAPTA.
Since starting its agitation, the VAPA has been successful in getting the fee increase reduced to Rs 4,550, said a parent, but it has been at the cost of a few activities in the school.
Now the refusal of the authorities to even acknowledge the VAPA or help establish the VAPTA despite a government resolution last year making PTAs compulsory in primary and secondary schools has forced the affluent parents to take their protest to the roads.The second phase of their agitation has started off with a sit-in near the school in Andheri (East), where 950 parents are to participate in rotation. They have threatened a road blockade if their demands are still not met.
Another of their demands is for a review of the pre-primary fees to bring them in line with the primary and secondary levels. "While fees at these levels are Rs 325 a month, in the pre-primary they are Rs 600, which is illogical," said a VAPA member.
The parents also want a refund of the pre-primary school fees of Rs 33,000 that they had paid in advance because the authorities have agreed to collect monthly tuition fees and term fees. Further, they demand the return of money collected for notebooks and diaries but not acknowledged through receipts by the school.
But the management today rejected these demands. Efforts to contact its officials for comment were in vain.
Amid the rising confrontation between the parents and the Vissanji authorities, the school’s administrator, K M Bangera, and its principal, I B Sethna, resigned. The former said he had done so because his contract had ended while the latter refused comment, only saying, "I’ve left the place."
The 1,000-strong VAPA is getting political support to its agitation. BJP corporator from Vile Parle (East) Parag Alavani described the first-ever meeting between the VAPA and the school’s trustees today as disappointing because the latter did not give any commitment. "They were not ready to refund the Rs 33,000 or reduce the pre-primary fee as there is no government regulation unlike that in the primary and the secondary levels. As for the formation of the VAPTA, they agree to it on principle but are refusing to give any date for its formation."
