In a bizarre twist, nearly 600 civic-school students in Govandi skipped classes on Wednesday — to protest for the very classrooms they were promised. Along with their parents, students from Nursery to Std VII staged a day-long demonstration outside the new Mumbai Public School (MPS) Natwar Parekh Compound CBSE building, which remains unopened more than a year after completion.
As mid-day reported earlier, the gleaming new structure stands ready — but unused — because no access road has been built leading up to it. Meanwhile, the students are packed into the MPS Shivajinagar-1 building, where classrooms are so overcrowded that multiple grades share the same room and four children squeeze onto one bench. “We refuse to send our children back until they move us to the new building,” said Badshah Shaikh, head of the Parents Teachers’ Association. “We were promised Govandi’s first CBSE school with modern facilities. Two years later, our kids are still stuck in an old, congested building that houses six other schools.”
Many parents who live in the adjoining buildings had chosen this school precisely because it was built close to their homes. “Now I have to cross a highway every morning just to get my daughter to the temporary campus,” said Ashiya, whose child is in nursery. Several parents live in the adjoining buildings. Seeing a school constructed so close to their homes, they eagerly applied through the BMC school lottery. Little did they know that, two years later, the brand-new classrooms would still be out of reach.
“A school close to home was the reason I enrolled my daughter, who now studies in the nursery section,” said Ashiya. “But since there’s no access road to the new building, I have to cross the highway every day to take her to the temporary school. Soon, I’ll have to enrol my younger child too — and now I’m starting to doubt my decision.”
The young students themselves have reported problems such as bullying and a lack of clean drinking water at the current premises. “It’s a pity our children got admission but still can’t use the facilities we were promised,” said Mudeena Ali Mohammed Chaudhary, whose daughter studies in Class 1. “We won’t send them back to school until they move us to the new building.” Parents say they still don’t know whether the delay lies with the BMC or the MMRDA. The group sent a written notice to the local ward office before staging their protest. Civic officials from the M East ward said, “Once the MMRDA completes the road work, the building will be handed over directly to the education department. Our ward officers are following up with the authorities to expedite the process.”
Later, the same evening a few parents visited the MMRDA office to get clarity on the handover of the school building. “We have recieved positive response and hope that the school building will be given clearance soon. If the progress keeps up, our children will happily attend school,” said Shaikh. MMRDA officials were not available for comment by press time.
