By Shivani Azad / TNN / Apr 3, 2022
Institute of Technology Management (ITM) School
DEHRADUN: The ministry of defence (MoD) has issued an order to stop admissions at all schools aided by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in the country for this academic session while one DRDO school in Mussoorie – the Institute of Technology Management (ITM) School – was shut down on April 1. Former President, APJ who served in DRDO for almost four decades, had mooted the idea of DRDO schools to develop scientific temperament among students He had also envisaged the schools benefiting children of officials of DRDO, which has a network of 50 laboratories working on defence technology. Some of these labs are in remote, isolated areas. DRDO has nearly 30,000 employees
Of the 11 DRDO-aided schools in India, three are slated to be transferred to Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS): one each in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi
Seven others, including one each in Dehradun (Raksha Anusand Vidyalaya), Chandigarh (Ballistics Vidyalaya), Pune (R&D E(E) English Medium School), Odisha (Range School, Chandipur Balasore) and Andhra Pradesh (NSTL Visakhapatnam), and two in Telangana (Defence School Lab, Kanchan Bagh, Hyderabad and DLS Vignyanakancha, RCI Hyderabad) are to handed over to other agencies.
The order, issued December 21, 2021, bi Vishnu Chandra Jha director, management services MoD reads “The competent authority has decided that there shall be no new admissions tin the entry level classes as well as all other classes in these schools for the next academic session 2022 -23” When quarried about the reasons behind the news, BK DAS, director of instrument and Research Development establishment IRDE of DRDO Dehradun said we are following instruction of the Defence Ministry which said running school doesn’t fall under the mandate of DRDO. The matters are decided at the headquarter level not by is, We are not closing idea is simply to hand over the management of these schools from DRDO to some other reasonable agencies. “ while the reason of handover of the school was not was not made immediately clear, sources pointed to fund crunch as a possible reason. A source in the know said, The decision was taken at the PMO level to curtail the expenses of DRDO”
Teaching staff and the parents of the student in these schools meanwhile expressed disappointment with the MoD decision
Pryanka Bisht, resident of Mussoorie whose children used to study in the ITM School said covid-19 has hit everyone financially my husband works at the small shop and we cannot afford English medium is education for our children at a private school, the fee was affordable at ITM where my son studies in class 1 and daughter in class 4 we are still banking on the school for reopen.
Badal Prakash vice president of Landoir cantonment board in Mussoorie where the school is located wrote a letter on Friday to officials to reconsider the decision to close the school “Teachers in this school have been working for 15 to 30 years. Now they are unemployed. The school currently 106 students who will have to travel far to gett quality education as there are no English medium school within the 5 km radius” Prakash said.