Page 20 - Education World Dec 2021

Education News

protracted schools lockdown includes e-learning mod-
doesn’t seem to bother the neta- ules introduced before
babu brotherhood that rules the the pandemic lockdown,
nation from the national capi- activity-based pedago-
tal. The price of the lockdown gies, coding and music
will be paid several elections lessons, four foreign
later by children of the Covid language courses (Eng-
pandemic era. lish, Japanese, Spanish
Autar Delhi (Delhi) and French) and founda-
tional courses to prepare
MAHARASHTRA students for various en-
Excellence price trance exams from class
VI onwards.
State-of-the-art in-
HE MAHARASHTRA GOVERN- frastructure and revo-
MENT’S celebrated Wa- Dattatray Ware: suspension outrage lutionary tech-enabled
Tblewadi Zilla Parishad pedagogies have pro-
Primary (WZPP) School in Shirur Several corporates including Art of duced excellent learning outcomes.
district, Pune, that made headlines Living Foundation and FCA India In the past eight consecutive years,
for transforming into a state-of-the- Automobiles (Fiat) have contributed all children passed the Maharashtra
art Marathi medium school deliver- unspecified amounts to build infra- government class V and VIII scholar-
ing internationally benchmarked structure of the school which includes ship exams. Moreover, the school’s
education, is facing a crisis because of air-conditioned classrooms and lap- robotics team was ranked among the
political machinations. On November tops for all children. The state govern- Top 3 in the international First Tech
22, the Pune Zilla Parishad education ment’s capital expenditure contribu- Challenge (2017) staged by the US-
department suspended its principal, tion is a single toilet and the school based FIRST, and Ware received the
D a tta tra y W a re for alleged financial kitchen. However in common with all President’s Award for outstanding
irregularities and possessing dispro- 110,000 public schools statewide, the work in 2016. In December 2018, the
portionate assets aggregating Rs.8.5 state government pays the salaries school was renamed Bharat Ratna Atal
crore. and wages of government appointed Bihari Vajpayee International School,
However, neither the WZPP School teachers and staff. Wablewadi, on the occasion of the late
Management Committee constituted The 360-degrees turnaround of prime minister’s 94th birth anniver-
under s.21 of the Right of Children to WZPP began in 2012 when then newly sary.
Free & Compulsory Education (RTE) appointed principal Ware drew up a owever, though the school’s in-
Act, 2009 comprising elected local school development plan in consulta- Hternational school nomenclature
government officials and parents/ tion with the local government (zilla was dropped after the Maharashtra
guardians of children, nor the local parishad). After the school purchased Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government — a
community are buying these allega- several digital devices through con- coalition of convenience comprising
tions against principal Ware fondly tributions from villagers, 19 local the Shiv Sena, Congress and National
known as Ware Guruji. Outraged by self-help groups offered to donate Congress Party — assumed office in
Ware’s suspension, they are demand- their profit of the next three years to November 2019, the school still re-
ing full autonomy for the school — the the school. Funds raised during local mained the new government’s trophy
first such demand for a zilla parishad festivals were diverted to build the institution. Over 1.5 lakh teachers
(village government) school in the school’s infrastructure and funds dis- of ZP schools statewide have visited
state. bursed by the village anchay at were WZPP during the past three years to
p
Established by the state govern- used to provide students Internet con- study its miraculous transformation.
ment with 34 students in 1980, WZPP nectivity. Inevitably, WZPP’s fame and par-
currently has 706 (521 primary and Since then with India Inc step- ticularly its huge waiting list attracted
185 anganw adi) children on its mus- ping in, the school was expanded to the attention of overweening politi-
ter rolls and a massive waiting list of 1.5 acres. The wi-fi enabled campus cians. With local politicians unable to
2,000 children. In consonance with features glass enclosed, solar pow- jump the admission queue, they have
several state government resolutions ered air-conditioned classrooms, a alleged irregularities in the school im-
issued in 2015, 2017 and 2019, 90 botanical garden and separate labo- provement fund’s bank account. Al-
percent of WZPP’s non-salary expen- ratories for maths, science, language legations about the school’s teachers
diture is met by the local government. and robotics. The school’s curriculum siphoning away funds to start a private

20 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2021