Hyderabad: Parents complain to cops over HPS seats

Hyderabad: About 46 parents collectively complained against the Hyderabad Public School (HPS) at Begumpet after they were denied application forms for their children. Earlier in the day,several parents had staged a protest at the school after the school made it known that there were neither application forms nor vacant seats on Tuesday.

Parents said that they were waiting for the application forms at the school gate since 6 in the morning. “We received a mail that application forms would be given from January 20 onwards. When we went yesterday, they asked us to come the next day and when we came today, the school management said that there are no application forms left,” said M.V. Krishna Rao, retired naval personnel, who was trying to admit his three-and-a-half-year-old child into UKG.

Videos taken during the parents’ protest were circulating on social media, in which a member of the school management was heard saying that application forms and vacancies were both over. The angry parents want to know how vacancies can be filled even before the academic year ends, which is the ‘basis’ for deciding the number of vacant seats. In the case of the application forms, if they are finished, more should be printed, the parents say.

The school management told parents that the limit of 1,000 applications has already been reached. As the parents were not convinced, the school management called in the Begumpet police. But the parents too went to the Begumpet police station later on and complained against the school management with 46 parents signing the complaint.

When contacted, the Begumpet police said they have received the complaint from the parents and registered it as a non-cognisable offence and would enquire into the issue. But they also said that that matter would fall under the Education department which should intervene.

As per the HPS school website, the admission to entry level is in December and January and the selection is made through drawing of lots, and a medical test. Parents question how vacancies can be filled up when they received mails telling them to collect application forms from January 20. They also want to know when the draw of lots happened to decide the final admissions. They added that they were not even informed if the process was limited to ‘first cum first serve’.