Pune's bishop's school compensates error with 45 seats

Thanks to tech glitch, parents of 436 wards had received short message service (SMS)es confirming admission. Accepting the technical glitch that caused inconvenience to the parents of 436

wards who were trying to get their ward admitted to The Bishop’s School, the latter has assured to open another division in its LKG section (Camp branch) to admit 45 more seats. Talking to

the media on Monday, school principal Frank Freese said, “I accept it was the school’s mistake that as many as 436 parents received the short message service (SMS) saying that admissions of

their wards have been secured.” “To compensate for it, we have decided to open another division for 45 students. These 45 students would be shortlisted out of the 436 students whose parents

had received the SMS. The selection will be done randomly on our online system,” he said. The technical glitch had taken place while the admission process was on for 155 seats for LKG for

the academic year 2013-14. Now, the school has decided to add 45 more seats to this strength. Meanwhile, on Monday, a group of around 60 parents who claimed to have received the SMS about

their wards’ admission staged a protest outside the school demanding repeat of the entire admission process. Sainath Babar of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and parent representative

Parvez Khan led the protest. However, refusing their demand, Freese said, “I accept there was a mistake and to compensate for it we are ready to open another division. But I will not carry

out the process again as it will cause inconvenience to those who have secured admission.” Babar and Khan, however, pressed for the demand to carry out the entire process again. They said,

“We do not believe there was a technical glitch. The school has given admission to many through the back door.” “We want the entire process to be carried out again manually. Until then, we

will not withdraw the agitation,” said the protesting parents, adding that they will begin a sit-in agitation if the school refuses to accept the demand. Last week, some technical error led

to 590 applicants of the school’s Camp branch and 450 from the Undri branch received SMS mentioning that they have secured admission, a school official said. This had created confusion and

parents had gathered outside the school campus protesting against the school. _ @DNA_