Andheri school withdraws circular

Prime Academy at Andheri officially withdrew the circular asking parents of its students to submit an undertaking signed before a magistrate, guaranteeing their ward's good behaviour.

Prime Academy at Andheri officially withdrew the circular asking parents of its students to submit an undertaking signed before a magistrate, guaranteeing their ward's good behaviour.

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On April 2, the school had issued the circular to parents of its Class 9 and 10 students threatening to remove children, who did not bring such an undertaking from the school. On Thursday, the education department sent a show-cause notice to the school threatening to suspend its no-objection certificate if they did not withdraw the circular.

“The school agreed to cancel the undertaking requirement after we spoke to them yesterday,” said PR Pawar, education inspector of the west zone.

Parents were invited to a meeting at the school on Friday and informed that they would not have to submit any undertaking.

“They said that some parents had approached them about the matter, which is why they decided to do this,” said Jayant Jain, president of non-profit group Forum For Fairness in Education, who parents had earlier complained to.

Pawar plans to send out a general circular, asking schools to refrain from asking for character certificates or other conditions from students or parents.

A few months ago, Maneckji Cooper School in Juhu had asked parents of prospective students for character certificates at the time of admissions but repealed the requirement after the education department intervened.

“Schools should not be asking questions about character, parents' income or other irrelevant questions,” said Pawar. “We will take action against them if we hear about such things.”