Parents and students on Saturday staged a protest at the schools closed down by the Education Department officials citing lack of recognition.
Following the directions of Collector A. Md. Imtiaz, a team led by District Educational Officer (DEO) M.V. Rajya Lakshmi inspected a few schools and shut down those without recognition in Vijayawada, during a drive on Friday.
The DEO arranged banners in front of the schools stating that the institutions had been sealed for not having recognition, and directed the managements not to run the schools further.
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Students and parents, who reached the closed schools on Saturday morning, staged a protest and questioned the staff about the future of their children.
“The school management did not give any information about government recognition at the time of admission. We paid ₹4,000 as first quarter fee, ₹6,000 for books and purchased uniform for ₹2,500. Now, the institution is closed,” lamented Narayana, father of an eighth standard student. The expenditure of some parents who had more than one child in the same school had gone up to ₹25,000 towards fee, books, shoes and uniform.
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“Now the admissions are closed in other schools. What is the future of our children?” asked a mother, Aruna, who was shocked at the closure of Oxford School. She urged the government to take action against the school managements for deceiving the students and ensure refund of fee.
Meanwhile, Ms. Rajya Lakshmi and her staff continued raids on unrecognised schools in the city on Saturday. “We inspected many institutions and verified the records,” she said.
“Today, we shut down Teja Chaitanya School and Sri Vani School in Vambay Colony, Oxford School at Bhavanipuram and Vani School at Mutyalampadu,” the DEO said.
The government gave wide publicity on unrecognised schools before the beginning of the academic year, she said and appealed to parents not to admit their children in such schools.