A bus fare hike, a plan to shift schools out of the city, and a proposal to bring four institutions under the Kendriya Vidyalaya system might have little in common. But in Madhya Pradesh this week, they produced the same response: schoolchildren walking out of their classrooms and confronting the administration.

None of the three protests was organised by a students’ union, a teachers’ body or a party cadre. All were led by schoolchildren, some barely into their teens, who wanted to engage directly with authorities.

A fare hike – and rollback

The first played out at the Sironj bus stand in Vidisha district. Private operators running the routes used by students of Kanya Higher Secondary School had raised fares from Rs 10-15 to Rs 25. On August 12, students gathered at the bus stand and raised slogans for about half an hour, appealing to local MLA Umakant Sharma to intervene, saying that the increase would impact their ability to attend school.

Sub-Divisional Magistrate Om Narayan Badkul reached the site with the Sub-Divisional Officer of Police and the local police station in-charge, and told the students that the administration would take the matter up with the operators.

The protest was called off following that assurance. Two days later, after a meeting involving the SDM, the SDOP, the tehsildar, the police station in-charge and the bus operators, the administration announced that schoolgirls travelling to and from school would once again be charged the earlier fare.

CM’s intervention

In Ujjain, the dispute was over a state order to merge 11 schools in the district, six of them in urban neighbourhoods, into the Sandipani Vidyalaya at Daudkhedi, located six to ten kilometres outside the city.

The six urban schools are in the Sarafa, Mahakal Maidan, Maharajwada and Jaisinghpura areas, and protesting students said more than 2,500 students would be affected, a figure the district administration did not independently confirm.

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More than 300 girls, most of them from the Sarafa school, held a sit-in outside the Ujjain Collectorate on August 14 that stretched close to two hours. One student said many of the girls already “travelled eight to ten kilometres to reach school” and that their parents, largely daily-wage labourers, could not manage a longer-distance commute.

Another student described the safety concerns of the longer, more remote route: “We don’t want to go to Daudkhedi. Our current school is on the main road, and many of us come from far-away villages.”

Late Tuesday, the Madhya Pradesh government announced that students at Rani Lakshmibai Government Sarafa Higher Secondary School in Ujjain would continue attending classes at the existing Sarafa campus until a suitable alternative arrangement is made.

Collector Raushan Kumar Singh said the decision had been taken on the instructions of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav. “An important and sensitive decision has been taken in the interest of the girl students… Until a suitable alternative arrangement is made for the school, the girl students will continue at the current Sarafa school,” the Collector said.

In the state capital

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In Bhopal, close to 400 students of the Demonstration Multi-Purpose School protested a proposal to merge the institution into the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan network. The school is one of four such institutions, alongside campuses in Ajmer, Mysore and Bhubaneswar, established in December 1965 under NCERT to trial teaching methods that were later adopted more widely in Indian classrooms.

Students carrying placards reading “Save DMS” and “We Want Justice” submitted a memorandum to principal S K Gupta opposing the merger and warning of a phased agitation if their demands went unmet.

A National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) order dated August 7, 2026, shows that the proposed transfer of its four PM SHRI Demonstration Multipurpose Schools to the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan has moved beyond an initial proposal, with a committee constituted to work out the modalities of handing over the institutions to KVS.

The order says the committee has been constituted specifically to “work out the modalities for handing over of 4 PM SHRI DM Schools to KVS” and will submit its report within a month of its constitution.

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The school students who protested have voiced concerns over what would happen to current students, teachers and vocational courses if the merger proceeds.

School principal Gupta did not respond to calls or messages seeking a response.