If Ryan School Shuts Down, What of the Kids in Their Board Year?

Police stand guard at Ryan International School during a protest, in Gurugram on 9 September.

(Photo: PTI)

Nothing in the past five days makes sense. I try to find a balance with all that is going on. The little boy’s parents are heartbroken, enraged by the untimely violent loss of their son. The little boy’s older sister probably hasn’t even gathered herself up from the chaos that her brother’s murder has caused. The parents are too scared to send their children to school any more.

I am also a parent and an aunt to children who go to the same school, and I am desperate to find some balanced solution to the madness that has ensued.

I am struggling between standing with the enraged parents and being a worried mother to a child who is in class 12.

I don’t know what action will be taken by the authorities and how my child will complete her board examinations without hassle. The board exams are only a few months away.

Click here for live updates on Pradyumn’s murder.

Demonstrators protest outside Ryan International School as they demand action against the school.(Photo: PTI)

Why Did I Choose Ryan International for My Child?

I have been asked several times by many why I put my daughter in Ryan International School. Why wasn’t an alternate school picked? My answer is because I could barely manage to afford this one. The fee was lower than most schools in Gurugram.

I had my daughter admitted into this school because in all of Gurugram, this was the only school in which I could afford her admission.

I still struggle with the fees, even though it’s 50 percent lesser than most schools in the area. My finances cannot afford a more expensive school for her. I have to make a choice with what I can afford. When I could afford better schools, I did. Now, I cannot.

Here is my dilemma. My bigger worry right now is that over 500 children from that one school alone are preparing for their board exams, and were in the middle of their term exams when this incident left them in a state of chaos and confusion.

Also Read: Ryan Murder Case: Read List of Demands from Boy's Parents to SC

With demands to withdraw and cancel the license of the school, what will happen to these children? What happens if the license for the school is withdrawn? How will the authorities manage the over 500 children who are to appear for the class 10 and class 12 board exams soon? Is there an answer for this, or will the authorities blindly look the other way, ignore the plight of hundreds of students, and shut down the school?

I think about the teachers who choose to travel several kilometres to this remotely-located school. They are distraught, dealing with anger, unsure and just as lost on what will happen.

My daughter will lose a year if the school shuts down. I am not ready for that. Why should justice that is demanded not think about this? Yes, I am concerned about this. I cannot afford another school, neither the fees, nor the new set of uniforms I will have to manage funds for.

Is Shutting the School Down Really Justice?

My question to the hundreds of parents who are demanding the school be punished for the crime is, why should the children be punished? Why are the teachers who have put in years of hard work be punished? Would that be justice?

One may think I have no heart.

Oh! I do. My heart reaches out to the trauma caused to the parents, to the family, to the classmates and friends of the little boy, to the children in school who walked in happy that fateful Friday and have been frightened out of their wits since.

I am a mother. I am a parent. I know what it is like to lose a child as well. My loss of a child still in my womb hurt so much, I cannot even fathom what it must be like with a child who one has loved every single moment for seven years.

Family members and relatives cry during the funeral of Pradyumn, in Gurugram.(Photo: PTI)

So, what is the solution?

To be honest, I don’t know. All I know is that shutting down the school is no solution and neither is it justice.

Punishing and suspending an acting principal, who has been there only a few months, over an employee whose nature one didn’t figure out in eight years of his employment there, is not a remedy either. The accountability of the administration always is with the management. The principal of the school usually focuses on academics. One needs to discern and understand the difference.

It would be great if someone from the authorities or the CBSE could be posted interim to oversee and ensure things are in order, at least until school year is complete. It would be great to have an alternate solution that works, but is there one?

The apathy of the management (read Pintos) towards Ryan International School, Sohna Road, is the most common, unspoken knowledge that parents and children know about. Among all the schools that the management and the Pintos run, this particular school is like a black sheep of the family. Well, it now has roused the nation.

Also Read: Sorry Ryan Pinto, 7-Year-Old Pradyumn is the Victim, Not You!

Has the management taken accountability for the murder? That is my question. It is easy to frame the local administration or the principal, to be a scapegoat in the whole scheme of things. Truth is, every grant, allocation of budget, and even the fees goes directly to the management. Let the investigation check that out as well.

I will not state the rumours that the Pintos are BJP supporters and are forcing teachers and students to register in the party, are true. I have no such WhatsApp message sent to me to support that or prove it. While that angle needs investigating, I doubt that will resolve the issue at hand.

Let us stand with the family in this brutal murder that cries out for justice. Also, let us be mindful of the unsaid concerns of hundreds of parents who need to see their children complete board examinations.

Let's Find the Right People to Punish

These children were in the middle of their term exams. There is no saying where it will go. Not many parents can afford fees or a year lost. I cannot either. Let us be mindful of that.

Let’s spend less time in just classrooms with teachers for PTM, but also actively point out our observations in slackness with regards to security, facilities, adequate lighting, furniture, clean drinking water, toilets with bolts (yes, some toilets have no bolts), and a method to throughly check the background of non-staff.

The management that extracts fees from the parents needs to up their security screens and checks. Let’s not dig a pit of unemployment for the others that are employed there, and have been doing their jobs well. Let’s be mindful of that as well.

Also Read: Apathy in the Face of Child Abuse: How Prepared Are Schools?

Parents and alumni protest outside Ryan International School.(Photo: The Quint)

A friend in UK rightly said, “We need a paradigm shift in mentality otherwise all we shall deliver is yet another novel way of cheating the protocol.”

All I know is this – what we do today, needs to be done with a calm balanced mind, rather than with anger. Our children will not be better because we are angry. We will be punished by the very anger that we misdirect. My child and my nephew are students of the same school where the seven-year-old was murdered. The rage of parents is justified. But, it is not okay to just be in rage, rage directed to the right space will be better.

Constructive solutions are required. The weak judicial process in India hardly allows effective background checks. Repeated offenders are out on bail. It takes ages for justice to be served.

As of now, we don't know what will happen. I cannot afford this loss of time. I cannot also bring back the little boy who will no longer come home to his parents. I cannot even begin to fathom their pain, but I know what it is to lose a child, and worse, this brutally; it tears me up.

I can only hope a sensible call is taken. For the moment, that will suffice.

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