Even as it struggles to cope with fee hike protests, the Rosary School is now faced with the prospect of a more focused, united attack by parents

Rosary violating court order by not holding PTA poll

Even as it struggles to cope with fee hike protests, the Rosary School is now faced with the prospect of a more focused, united attack by parents. Denied a forum to voice their grievances, angry parents have formed a body of their own and are calling it the Parents' Representative Association.

"This school doesn't have a parent-teacher association (PTA) or an elected body of parents' representatives who will discuss our issues with the management," said Pankaj Agrawal, whose nephew is a Junior KG student in Rosary. "Whenever the school feels like it, it calls for a meeting of parents where none of us are allowed to bring up anything against it."

'Not welcome'
A parent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there never had been a PTA or elections in the school.
A Std III student's parent said the school did not encourage interaction with teachers.

"We were never given a chance to choose our representatives. Forget about choosing, we don't know if there are any PTA representatives," said the parent, also requesting anonymity. "Once a year there is an annual day and only on that day do we get to meet the teachers. Otherwise we aren't even allowed on the campus, forget having a PTA body."

NGOs are crying foul over the school management's callous attitude towards PTA formation, and are saying it amounts to contempt of court.

HC directive
"There is a (Bombay) High Court directive, besides directions from the state government, that every school affiliated to the state board shall have to have an elected PTA," said Jayant Jain, president of Forum for Fairness in Education. "If any school doesn't do so, it is straighaway a case of contempt of court."

Jain's NGO had filed a petition in the high court on formation of PTAs in schools.

Despite repeated attempts, both Balchandra Bhesle, director of education, and Sunil Magar, deputy director of education,u00a0 could not be reached for comment.

Calls to their mobile and landline numbers went unanswered and their office staff replied that they were busy in meetings.