Will not shut Marathi, English sections: Andheri school

To end a protest by parents worried about alleged plans by Andheri’s SCD Barfiwala School to close its Marathi and SSC English mediums because it has started a CBSE division, Cosmopolitan Education Society, the organization that runs the school, has denied the rumours.

To end a protest by parents worried about alleged plans by Andheri’s SCD Barfiwala School to close its Marathi and SSC English mediums because it has started a CBSE division, Cosmopolitan Education Society, the organization that runs the school, has denied the rumours.

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“We will not close down our Marathi medium, but will continue admitting students to the section. Even the English medium SSC section will be retained,” school trustee Bharat Valia said at a meeting on Friday morning. “The CBSE section has been created to provide students with one more option. But it’s not going to affect the functioning of other sections.” Valia has also submitted an undertaking to the parents to allay their fears.

Parents and local politicians have been agitating against these alleged changes since March 15.

Many Muslim parents were also worried when the school issued a circular stating they were trying to obtain a Gujarati linguistic minority status. “We are applying for minority status for technical reasons. This does not mean Muslim students will not receive admission in the school; we do not discriminate on the basis of the caste of students during admissions,” Valia said.

However, parents are continuing their agitation. “The real problems still remain unanswered. Many issues like the quality of new teachers hired for CBSE and fee hikes were not addressed,” said a parent.