Military school battles to stay open Teachers of this CBSE institute have not been paid for months, power bills are pending, but principal tries to keep it going

Military school battles to stay open

Teachers of this CBSE institute have not been paid for months, power bills are pending, but principal tries to keep it going

The students and teachers from Raigad Military School in Andheri are fighting to keep their school from shutting down. With the school management being caught in court battles, teachers have not been paid for the last few months. In fact, the school received a notice of disconnection of electricity on Friday for not paying electricity bills. The CBSE school in Behram Baug, Andheri, was started by a group of freedom fighters and has students from nursery up to class 12 studying in it. Today, the school’s principal and a few dedicated teachers are still trying to run the school in spite of not receiving their salaries. Lata Pol, the principal of the school, says that the school received an electricity disconnection notice as they had not paid the bills. “We were not able to release the money for paying electricity bills. But we are trying to resolve this issue by Monday. Luckily, the school is shut for the weekend, so students will not suffer,” said Pol. “Around 90 students have already left, but we have no intention of closing down the school. The CBSE affiliation is valid till 2017,” she added. However, she admits that she doesn’t know what the management intends to do. Jayant Jain, president of the NGO Forum For Fairness in Education, says, “If no action is taken, the management will shut the school permanently. It appears that the management is not interested in running the school and therefore have stopped paying salaries to the teaching and non-teaching staff. The employees have not received their salaries for the past few months, and the teachers are thinking of quitting.” Members of the Forum, along with some parents, met NB Chavan, the deputy director of education, to dicuss the issue. But the department didn’t take any action as the school is affiliated to the CBSE board, and government rules do not apply to such schools. “The management is playing with the future of the children. They might construct a residential complex or even a mall in place of the school. Both the children and parents are worried as they don’t know what will happen in the future,” said Jain.