Jul 15, 2016 10:35 PM
36120 Views
(Updated Aug 30, 2016 08:48 PM)
New Horizon Gurukul is the worst school in Karnataka. Here are the reasons.
The school fee increases every year by 10-20%. That too, at a time when the current Govt is aiming to attain zero inflation and give lower interest rates on fixed deposit. The hapless parents don't have a choice. When parents approach school for Income Tax proofs, they realize the tuition fee is a much smaller part of total fee. Is this a scam?Reports from their sister concern, New Horizon College, suggests indiscriminate construction and renovation - is the school fee diverted to the college?
There is ZERO religious diversity in school. 99.999% students are Hindus. It is rumored that a handful of Christians are even afraid to tell their name, for fear of being shamed in the unique environment created. The school has a pathological hatred for other religions and is reluctant to declare holidays for festivals of other religions.
The school has entrusted ISKON with teaching values to students. The syllabus of Value-Plus is never shared with parents. The ISKON teachers are given a virtual freehand. So, in the end, it boils down to soft Hindutva and only God can save the children from becoming dancing devotees or religious fundamentalists or shloka chanting zombies. The following are sample teachings from ISKON staff a) Who is the best inventor(God, scientist) Answer God b) Who wrote the Vedas(God, human, neither, both) Answer: God c) Those who do not believe in God are(normal, monkeys)
The schools recruits teachers with Hindu right-wing leaning. So, it has become common occurrence to hear students complain about dissemination of right-wing Hindutva material. The teachers are silently pressurized to extort students to avoid bringing meat to school. However, there is no official communication to parents on this subject.
Teachers are incompetent. There were news reports and whatsapp posts of a certain class VI B social science teacher(Bindhu) conducting a debate on racism, forcing some students to debate for racism and some against. Imagine students debating for racism. Some of the comments made by students were, "Without racism, life would be boring." " Deaths due to racism will help India reduce population" and "Obama became US President inspite of being black." The teacher did not moderate the debate and instead allegedly enjoyed these arguments. The teacher later added, "Gandhiji came to India to fight for freedom, because of racism. So racism is good.". Finally, she rewarded the team which debated for racism. The teacher did not have the qualification to understand that topic of debate should have been -"Is there racism in India" and not "Is racism good or bad". I wonder what will happen if this teacher does a debate on sexual harassment. It is to be seen if such reckless activities will encourage racial harassment in the school.
The school has many commercial interests. After school sports training, compulsory subscription to Deccan Herald student newspaper(though money is taken from students, newspapers are not delivered daily), enrollment in i-Cube Quiz(Rs480 taken from students), purchase of Bhagawat Gita and notebooks from ISKON, shoes from school endorsed vendor, uniform from another vendor.
The school chairman, Dr. Mohan Manghnani displays huge flexboard of his 5 crore donation to Swach Bharath Abhiyaan. However, the footpaths near the school are dirty and dangerous for students to walk. Manghnani is famous for sending circulars to parents to send across Dal, chawal etc and then hogging all the credit all for his "philanthropy". Moreover, there needs to be an enquiry to check if there was any quid-pro-quo in the various awards the school as well as the Chairman are getting. The ground situation does not justify any awards.The Principal, Sheila, is an arrogant lady. Once she famously said to parents during an annual Day function, "Parents, please behave!". She also interferes in the elections of Captain/Vice captain. She likes passing diktats - don't share class text answer sheets with parents. Won't participate in SOF Olympiads because school does not get into top ranks. She seems to be in a hurry to take India towards North Korea.
There is no parent Teacher Association or complaint redressal mechanism. If anybody complains they are curtly told to look for another school. School events are mostly a parading opportunity for Manghnani family. There is no decent space for parents to drop and pickup their children. The school does not have provision for visitor's parking. During PTMs(one on one), the entire stretch of road is parked with cars creating menace to local people.
