Edu officer flees after parents grill him over action on school

Nagpur: Education officer Chintaman Wanjari ran away after parents confronted him on the issue of “exorbitant fees” allegedly charged by one of the leading schools in the city.
The aggrieved parents recently approached him after ‘School of Scholars’ (SOS) cancelled admissions of over 40 students as they failed to pay the fees.
Earlier, they had protested at Bal Bharti Bhawan where Wanjari assured to help them out by asking the school to withdraw Transfer Certificate (TC) handed over their wards and take action against the management. Next day, however, he issued a simple letter appealing to the school to reconsider the parents’ request.
The unhappy parents then went to meet him and grilled him on why no action was taken against the school for illegally removing the students of ninth and tenth standards. They also asked the reason behind the department softening the stand against the school, which failed to refund Rs1.44 crore to the parents, as per its own audit.
In February, the department had asked the school run by ‘Nagar Yuvak Shikshan Sanstha’ to refund this amount to the parents after conducting an audit of the last three years, where it was found that an excess amount of Rs1.44 crore was charged from the parents.
Initially, Wanjari tried to defend his action and even dared the parents to lodge a police complaint against him. He also asked the security guards to take out the agitating parents. Finally, he got out of his chair and started walking even as the parents kept asking their queries and also video shooting the conversation.
He failed to respond to TOI’s numerous calls and text messages. Earlier also, TOI had tried to call him over similar issues related to schools, but he never answered.
“We’re fighting against the school management on the fees issue for the last two years. They’ve illegally formed the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) without informing all parents and fixed the fees as per their wishes. Since 2014, they have hiked the charges by 140%. It seems the Education Department officials work on the rolls of private schools,” Amit Hoshing, a parent, told TOI.
SOS defends move to remove students
While categorically refuting all allegations, the SOS management led by Sagar Meghe defended the move to handover TCs to the students, who failed to pay the fees.
“We’ve acted against 30-32 students from over 40,000 enrolled with our various branches across Vidarbha. All of them haven’t deposited the fees since the last two years, which is before the Covid-19 pandemic. We had issued them several reminders and letters to complete the formalities. We also allowed them to complete their online classes and appear in examinations. It was only after the declaration of their results that we took a call to remove them.”
He added that they acted as per high court’s orders that those failing to pay the fees for two years can be handed over TCs. “Our fees haven’t changed since the last three years, as our proposal to revise it is pending with the Fee Regulation Authority (FRA). These fees are fixed in consultation with the PTA at that time. We even offered 15-20% discount to the students, who paid initial instalments, considering the pandemic situation,” he told TOI.