Villagers put up ‘ZP go back’ banner outside Wablewadi school

Raising their voice once again against the Pune zilla parishad (ZP), the villagers of Wablewadi have put up a huge banner that reads ‘Zilla parishad go back’ in front of Wablewadi ZP school, the same school which shot to global prominence after principal Dattatray Ware aka Ware guruji transformed it

Raising their voice once again against the Pune zilla parishad (ZP), the villagers of Wablewadi have put up a huge banner that reads ‘Zilla parishad go back’ in front of Wablewadi ZP school, the same school which shot to global prominence after principal Dattatray Ware aka Ware guruji transformed it.

Wablewadi ZP school is located in Shirur taluka of Pune district and is internationally recognised for its innovative learning skills and development works for students. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

Surekha Wable, a villager and member of the school management committee, said, “Since the last one-and-a-half years, our Wablewadi school has been continuously targeted by the Pune ZP administration. They have not even given the school a fulltime principal apart from closing down many of the schemes that had been running. Till now, more than 200 students have left the school. The banner has been put up in front of the school to protest all the injustice.”

The Wablewadi ZP school is located in Shirur taluka of Pune district and is internationally recognised for its innovative learning skills and development works for students. The students here learn robotics, coding and new technologies apart from eight foreign languages to keep pace with global standards. But it wasn’t always like this, at least not when Ware guruji joined. It was he who led a transformation of sorts wherein the school evolved from 34 students in 2012 to over 500 students and came to be recognised as an ‘ideal school’ internationally. In 2016, looking at Ware’s efforts, the Bank of New York and Art of Living organisations provided financial aid to the school. Ware was conferred the President’s medal for his innovative work.

Last November however, a villager filed a complaint stating that donations had been demanded from some of the locals for admissions to the school. During the course of the investigation, it was alleged that funds were transferred to Ware’s personal bank accounts after which he was first suspended and later transferred to another school by the ZP.

When contacted, a senior official from the Pune ZP on condition of anonymity said, “Our enquiry into the entire issue was completed and a detailed report in two parts was submitted to the divisional commissioner’s office last year. Whereas now, the case is in the high court and there is nothing that we can do anymore. But there has been tremendous pressure and various things have been used against us by politicians, senior administrative officers, social media etc. The case has been in the hearing stage since February 2022 and once the hearing is completed by the divisional commissioner’s office, further orders will be issued.”