Even as Class X students of CBSE schools across the State were busy writing the board examination that began on Monday, 29 students of Arooja’s Little Stars School at Moolamkuzhy, near Fort Kochi, were restrained from appearing for the examination owing to the non-affiliation of the school with the CBSE.
As the protest against the school management soared with youth outfits of almost all political parties taking out marches to the school, the Thoppumpady police arrested two members of the management. The arrested were identified as Maggi Arooja, 55, school manager, and her husband Melbin Dcruz, 59.
They were produced before the court and remanded. The police are likely to arrest the Principal as well.
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The case was registered following petitions filed by parents of students. The police charged the arrested with IPC Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).
Since the school does not have CBSE affiliation, the management has been making arrangements for the past seven years at various schools for the students to take the examination. Parents and teachers had presumed that a similar system would be in place this year as well, but they recently learnt that the management of other schools had rejected the request to allow students to write the exams through their schools.
Though parents and teachers had been enquiring about hall tickets for the past few weeks, they were allegedly kept in the dark about the imbroglio. It is alleged that the management would have known at least by October last year that the students were not registered, and that their request to the CBSE Board to conduct exams directly were rejected.
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It is learned that the district education officials had rejected the school’s application for No Objection Certificate (NOC) for CBSE affiliation many times as the school did not meet the requirements. In fact, the Deputy Director of Education (DDE) had issued notice for closure of the school, which the management did not comply with.
Ernakulam Collector S. Suhas urged parents to check the credentials of educational institutions before enrolling their children.