Mahadevi Birla school closed for second day following protests

Mahadevi Birla World Academy remained closed for the second day today following angry protests by parents over converting it to a girls' school from a co-educational one.
Principal Anjana Saha said they would open classes for students as soon as the protests ended.
A 12-member representative of the parents are scheduled to have a meeting with the school management tomorrow to end the impasse.
"We are not even changing the name of our school. We are only changing the policy related to admission of boys. Our existing boys will get full support till they pass out from class XII. The school management has the authority to take such decisions," the principal told reporters.

Mahadevi Birla, which used to be a girls' school, was converted into a co-ed school three years ago.
"But we saw that every year there was a 30 per cent decrease in the number of boys so we decided to revert back to being a girls school," Saha said.

As of now there are 3,000 girls in the school and only 270 boys from kindergarten till the second standard.
A parent, whose son is in class one, said they are protesting because the decision of the authorities will force them to shift their child to another school.
Parents have been protesting outside the school since the last few days. Some of them had even blocked the entry gate of the school forcing the authorities to shut it down.

"It was not conducive for the students to come and leave the school after negotiating their way through large numbers of agitating parents and to see parents engaged in confrontation with the school," the authorities said explaining why the closed it down temporarily yesterday.