Parents demand municipal school at Bibvewadi

Updated on: Thursday, May 05, 2011

Parents of 650-odd children in the Bibvewadi area where no municipal school exists for over four to five km, along with NGO Swadhar, have submitted a petition to the Pune Municipal Corporation’s school board, pointing out the urgent need for a school in the area and for transport facilities to take the children to other schools in the interim.

The petition was signed on Wednesday during a public meeting of parents, member-activists of Swadhar – which is also a member of the Action for the Rights of the Child, an umbrella organisation of various child rights groups in the city – as well as officials from the PMC school board and the central government-run Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

Local resident Ratna Rathod told TOI, “My daughters aged 10 and 11 years have been out of school for a year now since it is not possible for them to walk the distance to the school everyday, which is at least five km away. I request the PMC to start a school in this area at least this academic year onwards. If that is not possible, at least provide buses to take these children to school.”

Anjali Bapat, member-activist of Swadhar, said, “So far the school board has kept promising that the PMC standing committee has approved a school in this area. But, apparently, since no reserved land belonging to the PMC is available, it is difficult for the school to materialise. That being the case, I wonder how the tenets of the Right to Education Act that promises free and fair education to every child – by envisaging a school within a km of the child’s residence – would be met.”

Bapat said that when the activists of Swadhar and ARC had asked the PMC for buses to ferry these children to schools, they were told that there was no budgetary allocation for the same. “The school board says it would provide free PMPML passes to these children, but that would not be of much use. These children belong to the primary school level and are too young to travel alone. Their parents, who are struggling to make ends meet, cannot take them everyday.”

Dhananjay Pardeshi, deputy education officer, PMC, and Rajesh Thorat, co-ordinator of Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan, who were present at the meeting, asked Swadhar to identify places where a school could be run on rent. “Alternately, we, for our part, will look for land where a temporary shed can be built to house classes. If none of that works, we will provide transportation to these children”, they said.

Parents demand municipal school at Bibvewadi

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