'School ignored as it is Marathi medium'

'School ignored as it is Marathi medium'

A Shiv Sena delegation comprising two former state legislators on Wednesday met assistant director of education NB Chavan and submitted a memorandum on regarding the pitiable condition of the 136-year-old Elphinstone Technical School and Junior College near Dhobi Talao.
The delegation, along with the institute's alumni association, argued that the oldest technical school in the state, which is also a Marathi school, has been facing serious problems in terms of maintenance.
"The institute has classes from standards VIII to X with around 250 students, most of them from the lower-middle class," said Pandurang Sakpal, Sena leader from south Mumbai. "The building has a leakage problem. The windows are broken, while tubes and fans hang loose." He added that all of this was a result of the government's negligence of Marathi medium schools.
One of the institute's teachers said: "On Tuesday, we had to take a combined class of all the 200-plus students, as other classrooms were occupied by students who had come for some programme. The sports room, which was used to play carrom, chess and table-tennis, is shut for unknown reasons. New chairs are kept in a store room, while we use broken ones."
Bernard Chavis, president of the alumni association, said the institute's central hall is given on rent for shooting. "Why can't they use that money for maintenance?" he wondered. "The open space is used as a parking lot. Junior college students pay Rs2,400 as maintenance fund, but the school is still in a bad shape. It seems that the government wants to close down the institute."
Chavan said: "This issue comes under the jurisdiction of the director of technical education. I will forward the memorandum to him on Thursday, and he will take appropriate action."