The builders, under contractual obligation to provide an educational facility in the locality as per an agreement executed with flat owners of Yogi Nagar, set up the school in 1984. But in 1992, talk began of closing down the school -- which has about 1,000 students -- on grounds of unviability. In 1993-94, the management issued the first of three closure notices which was challenged by the parents, banded under a Parent Teachers' Association (PTA). This notice was withdrawn after the parents agreed to a feehike.

The PTA alleges that the builders actually wish to exploit the land for `business and commercial purposes'. When the trustees issued a second closure notice in 1997, the teachers petitioned the Bombay High Court with the PTA as intervener. On April 7, 1997, Justice A C Agarwal and Justice A Y Sakhare in their order handed over the management to a committee of teachers. But this year again, the management dangled a closure notice before the students in February, against which the PTA handed in a memorandum to the Director of Education on March 14. Parents also met officials of the civic education department on March 22, who reportedly assured them that the school would not be closed. Sadhana Mane, chairperson of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's Civic Education Committee, has also orally instructed the school management this week to continue with admissions for this year.

The trustees, though, are in no mood to relent. R Y Tiwari, chief executive officer of the school trust, told ExpressNewsline, ``It is not financially viable to run the school, so we have no option but to shut it down. Unless the PTA agrees to a fee hike, we cannot run the school.'' The school fees for primary class students are Rs 175 per student and Rs 130 per secondary class student. ``If the management can show us the accounts and tell us exactly why a fee hike is necessary, we are willing to consider it,'' said Sudhir Shah, PTA president.

The management's claim of financial non-viability claim does not hold, added Shah, as the panel of teachers managed to do a good job of running the school in the academic year 1997-98 with the existing fee structure. There was even a surplus of Rs 10,000, Shah claimed. Added a parent of a Std VIII student, ``The trustees are builders who developed the Yogi Nagar and Shantinagar complexes in Mira Road. How can they not have the money?''

A plot reserved exclusively for constructing the school has also been lying vacant near the school for the past 15 years, while the school hasbeen functioning in a godown meant for storing construction goods. This, ironically, is a reason cited by the management to shut down the school! Parents allege that the management never bothered to construct an alternate structure. Moreover, Mane also concurred that ``The municipal corporation takes the condition of the structure into account while granting recognition... And the recognition for Ajmera school is valid till 2000.''

Yet, the parents are willing to stick it out in the godown-school, as it is not only difficult to shift wards to another school, but parents will also have to dole out hefty donations, which many say they can ill-afford. Now, the battle-weary parents and teachers have proposed in their memorandum that the management be handed over to them. But with the management holding on to its guns, the battle looks set to rage on.