Mumbai: Parents against school's move to convert to ICSE

Parents of students attending Sharadashram Vidyamandir School in Dadar, where Sachin Tendulkar studied, are opposed to the school's move to convert the state board school into an ICSE school from the coming academic year. They allege that the school has not given any notice to them about the state board closure and conversion into a central board. The conversion will apply to students from Class I to V.

Sachin's school is not the only one that has witnessed this conversion of boards. Schools in the primarily middle-class area of Dadar have steadily witnessed old state board schools getting converted into the more elite central board ones. Many schools in the Dadar-Mahim area have introduced ICSE/CBSE curriculum under their auspices notably IES ORION school, Chhabildas School and Saraswati Mandir school.

The parents have now sought respite from Shiv Sena's student wing Yuva Sena. Sainath Durge, Yuva Sena Core Committee Member, said, "The school management is pressurising parents to take admission for the new board. This is done to charge heavy fees. Education has become a lucrative business."

One of the parents DNA spoke to said, "We don't want our children to go from SSC board to ICSE board school. I took the admission for my child in this school only because it is SSC board. The school is fooling the parents."

The school management insists that there is no force and this change is in the interest of the students. Subhash Jadhav, management administrative officer, said, "We have been communicating with parents about changing our SSC board school into ICSE since two years. We are not making any sudden changes. We have even trained our teachers for the new curriculum of ICSE board. We will also help children in coping with the studies."

VIP ALUMNI

• Sachin Tendulkar studied in Sharadashram Vidyamandir School from 1984 to 1989.
   
• Besides Tendulkar, the school has illustrious alumni like Pravin Amre, Vinod Kambli, Ajit Agarkar, Atul Ranade and Amol Muzumdar among others.