Thousands sign petition to save Hindu school from closure in UK

Thousands of people have signed a petition to prevent the closure of one of the UK’s largest independent Hindu faith schools, the Swaminarayan School here.

The Akshar Educational Trust, which runs the school set up in 1992, had announced its closure last month as part of plans to exit the education sector completely by July 2020. Parents of students associated with the school have now organised a campaign to save the “school of excellence” from closure.

“In a letter to parents, a spokesperson for the school blamed ‘increasing regulatory requirements, difficulties in recruitment and retention of teachers, ready availability of free state-funded Hindu schools, and declining pupil numbers’ for the move. This is simply not true,” notes the Change.Org petition, which has attracted nearly 3,500 signatures since last week.

“Sensitivity analysis of accounts by experts suggests that with restructuring it is possible for school to run for the foreseeable future,” it notes.