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No marks for Chennai’s Bala Vidya Mandir

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Saranya Chakrapani
Saranya ChakrapaniJun 04, 2015 | 16:41

No marks for Chennai’s Bala Vidya Mandir

It’s ironic that Chennai’s Bala Vidya Mandir chose to reveal the bigotry at its core, barely weeks after Tamil Nadu’s former chief minister O Panneerselvam sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal intervention in ensuring the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan carried appropriate modifications in line with the Right to Education Act.

The 60-year-old institution stands in implausible disregard to the state’s compelling sentiment to have at least 25 of a particular class’ strength dedicated to children hailing from disadvantaged background. But more importantly, it betrays an educational institution’s responsibility to curate policy decisions that are as inclusive and child-friendly as possible.

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Bala Vidya Mandir is in essence burying itself underground, without realising that in a city of more than 35 quality CBSE schools and highly discerning parents, it is not supply, but demand driven. Today, it has antagonised more than 500 parents who are up in arms against its dual fee structures – one that adheres to the state government-appointed Singaravelan Committee at Rs 32,000 to 39,000 per annum and the second that entices you with 59 “advanced” and “extracurricular” activities, at Rs 54,000 to 69,000; these include the use of canteen, playground and bus/van facilities, an annual school function and the one that takes the cake: a training programme on the prevention of child sexual abuse.

Quite interestingly, Vidya Reddy, the founder of Tulir – the centre for the prevention and healing child sexual abuse that conducts these workshops, has expressed her bafflement to this categorisation by wondering how sexual abuse prevention could in any bizarre definition, fall "beyond school curriculum".

If we are to dissect the contradictions in the functioning of Bala Vidya Mandir and lay them out, glaring loopholes come forth. A statement revealed by the school that claims to “abide by the principles of giving our children holistic learning, which prepares them for the future", sounds almost ludicrous after the mess it has created and quite self-destructively so. In news for allegations of personally pulling up students whose fees haven’t been paid, breaking CBSE by-laws, arbitrarily throwing in expensive paid courses in the middle of the curriculum, and now indulging in cheeky profiteering by differentiating between students of different income-groups - which has obviously been reiterated beyond rumours - is the quicksand the school will sink into, unless it makes significant amends, and quickly.

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As CBSE students of the 1990s, and before, we were old enough to learn that school uniforms could be tweaked into style statements. I remember how we once expressed the dullness of even, unvarying wardrobes, to our class teacher. She heard us out patiently and explained to us that under the sacred liberty to educate and be educated, uniforms were the reward of equality of all students. To think of it now, how the times have changed and eroded philosophies along the way.

Last updated: June 04, 2015 | 16:41
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