Updated on: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Traffic came to a standstill in front of Don Bosco, Park Circus, on Tuesday afternoon as parents agitating against the school’s refusal to admit their wards to Class XI blocked the road.
The parents, whose sons passed this year’s ICSE exam as candidates of the school, were enraged when the principal initially turned down their demand for a meeting. The principal later met the agitating parents and assured them that their grievances would be redressed early next month.
Parents of some 20 boys of the school started the agitation. On Tuesday, however, parents of 11 boys agitated while the rest apparently stayed away as their sons have either been admitted elsewhere and are unwilling to return to the school.
Sanjiv Doshi, father of Karan Doshi, was furious. “Even now, we do not know why our children were refused admission to class XI. We want our children to return to school. It is highly insulting and most of the children refused admission are depressed. Moreover, everyone in the new school Karan has been admitted to is asking why he was refused admission in Don Bosco though he did very well in his ICSE. It is tormenting the the children,” Doshi says.
He adds that he was informed on April 16 that Karan would not be granted admission to class XI. “By the time, most other schools had finished admissions. We tried to meet the principal who assured us that once results were declared, he would decide if Karan can get admission. But when the ICSE results were declared, we could not reach him. On Tuesday, when the receptionist refused to let us in, we created a stir. Finally, he called a few parents inside and assured us that he would meet us to discuss the possibility to taking the children back.”
Debakiranjan Dasgupta, the father of another student, alleged that the principal had told him that his son had misbehaved. “He however was not specific about the reasons of misconduct. It was then that we came to know about the school’s decision to give admission to 15 external students,” Dasgupta says.
The school’s principal, Father Cibi was not available for comment.