Over 8,000 middle class households in the once-upon-a-time garden city of Bangalore are witnessing an unprecedented power struggle between the principals of Bishop Cotton Boys (BCB, estb.1865) and Bishop Cotton Girls (BCG, estb.1911) schools and the moderator (archbishop) of the heavyweight Church of South India (CSI) — which claims a following of 3.5 million in the Indian peninsula — with a mixture of fascination and horror. At issue is who should be the supreme authority of these high networth day schools with an aggregate enrolment of 8,000 students, and ensconced on 21 acres of real estate valued at Rs.1,000 crore in the heart of the city.
Until end March, all seemed to be well at Bangalore’s most respected secondaries. In the EducationWorld-C fore Survey of India’s Most Respected Schools 2009 (EW September), BCB was ranked Bangalore’s best day school, second in south India and sixth nationwide. BCG was ranked third, fifth and 14th respectively. However on March 25 in a statement to the Times of India, which caught the schools’ 16,000 parents and the city’s academic community off guard, Col. (Retd.) John Ellis and Princess (sic) Franklyn, the principals of BCB and BCG, suddenly announced an intent to simultaneously resign their offices.
According to them, the board of management of the two schools chaired by the Rt. Rev. S. Vasantha Kumar, moderator of the (Anglican) Church of South India, had stripped them of all powers of administration and management, especially powers relating to admissions and managing the faculty. However, following spontaneous parents’ protests — over 200 parents staged a sit-in protest on the BCB campus on March 28 — the principals withdrew their resignations in the “interest of the welfare of students”.
Unsurprisingly, this public airing of grievances by the principals didn’t go down well with the management and Bishop Vasantha Kumar in particular. At an emergency meeting held on May 7, the executive committee of the CSI Karnataka Central Diocese (KCD) issued an order transferring Ellis and Franklyn to the city’s second-rung Cathedral and St. John’s schools — also governed by CSI-KCD.
Buoyed by parental and public support, the principals filed a petition in the city civil court challenging the “vengeful, illegal and unauthorised” transfer orders. On May 14 the court issued an injunction against the transfers. This stay order was challenged in the Karnataka high court by CSI whose counsel Nalini Chidambaram flew in from Chennai, and arguing that the transfers were a “routine administrative decision passed under the byelaws of CSI’s KCD” obtained a reversal of the lower court’s stay order.
Meanwhile, with scandalous stories of CSI-KCD office bearers demanding huge donations for admissions into these highly ranked schools, and of direct transfers of cash from the schools’ bank account into Vasantha Kumar’s personal account among other narratives highlighting the bishop’s extravagant lifestyle keeping the gossip mills churning, parents grouped under Bishop Cotton Parents’ Association (BCPA), weighed in to support the beleaguered principals. On May 11, the association filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Karnataka high court, praying that a directive be issued to CSI-KCD to establish a School Management Committee, comprising 75 percent parents, as per s.21(i) of the newly enacted Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. “The formation of a school management committee with parents, teachers, and management nominees as members will help improve governance and ensure transparency and accountability in the schools,” says James Arun, a parent, practising lawyer and spokesperson of the BCPA.
Meanwhile with Ellis and Franklyn having filed interlocutory applications in the high court which are due to be heard on June 1, on that very day when the two schools reopen, two new principals will be in office — former Cathedral School principal, John Zacha-riah will take charge of BCB, and Vidya Joshua of BCG.
Comments a member of the OCA (Old Cottonians Association) — BCB’s once powerful alumni association —which has been a helpless observer of the shenanigans in these once highly respected boarding schools: “Until the 1970s the BCB tradition was that a British Oxbridge man was appointed principal. But after the first Indian principal was appointed, standards have slipped steadily. Aggregate enrolment has quintupled, teacher-pupil ratios have risen to over 50 from 20, and these once-venerated institutions have transformed into ordinary cram schools. I’m ashamed to say I haven’t enroled my son in my old school.”
Sic transit gloria.
Summiya Yasmeen (Bangalore)