Refused admissions to their wards for nursery school after undergoing a lengthy admission process, including interviews and screening tests, angry parents manhandled the principal of a Pimpri school on Friday.
The principal, Father Bijily Thomas, claimed that he had nothing to do with the nursery since he looked after high school and junior college but the angry parents wouldn’t listen to reason after the ordeal that they went through.
Meanwhile, education experts said that holding screening tests and pre-admission interviews is not even legal, but it’s a widespread practice. “A school is not allowed to conduct such screenings, but they are rampant. What happens is that after going through a battery of such interviews at multiple schools that they applied to and facing rejections, the parents are fatigued and their anger often shows itself in such forms,” said Jayant Jain, founder of NGO Forum for Fairness in Education.
On Friday, the incident took place at Kalewadi in Sangvi area Nirmal Bethany High School and Junior College, where principal Bijily Thomas was manhandled by a group of parents who had come to inquire about LKG admission at the school.
The scared principal had to be hospitilised as he fainted after the incident and went through medical check up at Yeshwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH). He is currently being treated at the hospital.
Assistant police inspector MS Bansode who is investigating the case said, “A group of parents whose children had failed to clear the school’s admission test and interview for nursery admission, had come to the school to inquire about the procedure and how their children failed in the test. But the nursery school comes under a separate management. The parents were unaware about it and asked where Thomas’s office was.” The officer added that one of the furious parents who were present at the school, allegedly entered Thomas’s office and manhandled him and disappeared from the scene. After the incident, Thomas fainted and was later hospitilised by the school authorities. “The school authorities informed us about the incident. We immediately went to the school to control the situation,” Bansode explained.
He said Thomas was out of danger, but they would conduct medical test at the hospital. “We will conduct medical test on Thomas and thereafter we will decide which section we should slap against the alleged person,” Bansode added.
“We have formed a special team to nab the culprit. We will also inquire with the parents who had come to the school in the morning. Our investigations are on.”
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