Wednesday 27 June 2018

Angry scenes as Swaminarayan parents protest against school closure




Things turned ugly at Swaminarayan School yesterday evening as parents gathered in the school hall to protest against the shock news of its closure.

A Brent Council spokesperson said: “Brent Council has no role in the decisions of independent schools, including the decision by the Ashkar Educational Trust to close the Swaminarayan School. 

“Any parent, resident in Brent, who is seeking a school place for their child can contact the Brent Schools Admissions Service by emailing school.admissions@brent.gov.uk or by calling 020 8937 3110. 

“In November 2016 the Department for Education approved a proposal to open the Avanti Free School, an all-through (primary and secondary) free school. Under DfE rules, a new school can only be open when a permanent site is identified by the Education and Skills Funding Agency, who are responsible for securing sites for new free schools.”

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is an organisation that claims its moral discipline is to "refrain from violence" https://www.baps.org/About-BAPS/WhoWeAre/BasicBeliefs/MoralDisciplines.aspx

What this shows is the truth behind the institution and the hypocrisy.

Anonymous said...

The above comment is misleading. The parents of the school are not all followers of the organisation, in fact the majority of parents are non followers. These scenes only show civil unrest and have nothing to do with the institution and there is not hypocrisy as I am sure they condone this type of behaviour

Anonymous said...

It appears that a parent was trying to confront a follower so I do not understand your point . It has nothing to do with hypocrisy or reflref on the intuition.

Anonymous said...

Rubbish, absolutely rubbish. The Trustees have lost the trust. They bring shame to the school and walk away from Parents who are requesting explanation. This school & the Swaminarayan Temple bring lot of good name to the Community. I hope things go right for them !! Where are all the Gujarati Community people ??

Anonymous said...

The civil unrest was due to the fact that the trustees have gone about the closure of the school with no consultation with the parents in any way shape or form. In fact one of the trustees has his body guards pushing parents out of the way! They have made a decision to close down the only independent Hindu school in uk for their own financial gain long term. They had no real answers for these parents and in turn it is the children and parents who will suffer the consequences of this decision. I hope they can live with their decision.

Anonymous said...

The school made a loss last year and I believe the year before ....feel free to inspect the freely available accounts . How will the trustees gain financially? You make no sense . The school was loss making so it closer , that makes sense ...doesn't it? Instead of moaning about the decision, why don't you open your own Hindu school of you feel so hard done by? Also, the school isn't run by the council so it doesn't need to consult....check YouGov website.

Anonymous said...

Those are not bodyguards, they are just parents sheltering the trustee from an angry crowd.

Don't mislead. The behaviour of a few individuals has no relation to the organisation and its principles.


Anonymous said...

BAPS representative here clearly."The school isn't run by the council so it doesn't need to consult." Parents are stakeholders, teachers are stakeholders, the community are stakeholders.

As for your point about opening your own Hindu school, BAPS chose to keep their school as a revenue generating private school rather than look at academisation or free schools in 2010. Selfish selfish selfish

Anonymous said...

The need to consult shoould arise from something called common courtesy which is severly lacking in society at present! Just because you don't need to do something it doesn't necessarily mean it's right to not do it!

Anonymous said...

I am as Hindu is ashamed of how our Hindu leaders are behaving without heart. Our Hindu culture teaches us to help others through love, kindness and compassion. If the trustees of BAPS had these values, they would not thought of not closing the school.

UK government gives free educations to all children till A level course. When these children will grow up, they will repay to community as good citizens.

Late Guru Parmuk Swami had such vision when he opened Swaminarayan school. To day the trustees has lost their way by taking wrong decisions to close the school without consultation from parents.

BAPS is successful institution whose motto is to live on honesty on the teachings of Swaminarayan Bhagwan and spread Hindu culture.

BAPS mandir and the school is icon of Hindu Culture in London.

BAPS has ample funds to run the school even it is making loss or organise charitable events to raise the money. Money will pour in in thousands.

Tarun Patel governor of the school make me sick by his reasoning.

Anonymous said...

Please watch the video again the woman in blue was pinch under her chest in crowd by man behind her. I am sure that man was not there for his children school but was there women.management should take action for his behaviour and stop him visiting temple and school permanently

Anonymous said...

Good spot. So shame on hindu gujarati. He and his family should be banned from temple and school. Swami shree must take action asap for safety of other haribhaktas.