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The Department of School Education and Literacy has issued a notice to Orchids International School, BTM Layout, for shifting Pre-KG students to a different school without the parents’ consent.
The school admitted students from Pre-KG to Class XII for the academic year 2022-23. However, the management shifted the Pre-KG students to different school buildings 2 km away from the existing school without the parents’ consent. Many parents protested against the management and gave a complaint to the Block Education Officer (BEO) South-3 of the Department of Public Instruction.
On the basis of this complaint, the BEO issued the notice to the school. In the notice, the department said, “Generally, parents like to send their children to neighbourhood schools near their residences. Parents have paid the fee on the basis of infrastructure and the quality of education provided by the school. However, there is no provision in the department rules to shift the students who have already got admission in one school to a different school.”
“Shifting the students to other schools without the parents’ consent is also a violation of the department rules. The department will consider this as cheating the parents. The management should stop shifting the students to the other school. Otherwise, the department will take legal action against the school,” the department has warned the management in the notice.
Pankaja. J.C, BEO Bengaluru South-3, told The Hindu, “The school has violated the department rules and tried to shift the students to a different school without the consent of parents. After receiving the complaint from the parents, we sent an officer to the school and got a report. However, the school management has agreed to not shift any students to a different school building. But parents are scared and doubtful. Therefore, as a precautionary measure, we have appointed an officer to monitor the school.”
The school management, in its response, said, “Our school runs Orchids The International School from pre-primary to Class XII in this branch. We had been providing nursery classes to the children of some interested parents as an additional service. We had decided to discontinue the nursery classes in this branch so that we could enhance our focus on operating from Class K1 to XII. For the convenience of parents, we have tied up with a nearby Orchids institute which provides nursery classes with the same finesse as we do. We had informed all the parents concerned in advance, with an option to move to a nearby institute or any other institute of their choice.”
“However, some parents have agreed and some are not willing to move out. Therefore, we are willing to make it as convenient as possible for such parents to find an alternative. Those who are willing to send their children to the nearby institute will get all the benefits and high standard of education and safety which we had assured them,” the management said.
