After issuing a circular in this regard early this month, the BMC has now shifted all the teachers to another municipal school at Chunabhatti, and has assured the students they would be absorbed in the nearby private schools aided by the corporation.

But the students and their parents today held a demonstration in front of the BMC headquarters against the administration's move, saying that since the closest BMC-aided Marathi medium schools were at Girgaum, students would have to travel the extra distance every day. Prakash Baud of the Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, who organised the demonstration, said the BMC wouldn't be allowed to shut the school as the parents of the students, who belong to the poor sections, wouldn't be able to bear the cost ofsending their kids to a far-off school. The chairperson of the BMC's education committee, Sadhana Mane, said it was technically not possible to run the school, as there were only 81 students in it. ``The expenses of hiring the school premises and other facilities for 81 students were too much at a time when there's demand for more schools in the suburbs,'' she said.

The BMC had written to the state government in March for permission to shut the school, she informed, but it wasn't granted. The final decision on absorbing the students will be taken tomorrow, she added, assuring that a decision in favour of the students would definitely be taken.