The city-based SAI International School has landed in controversy for allegedly harassing a student of an economically backward class mentally and physically.
According to Pramod Kumar Das, father of Aum Prasad, a Standard-3 student, he had admitted his son at the SAI International School basing on the recommendation letter of the then School and Mass Education Minister in 2011 under Section 12(1) (c) of the Right to Education Act which has made a mandatory provision for free and compulsory education to poor and economically backward class children.
Das, who held a Press conference along with Odisha Soochana Adhikar Manch convenor Pradip Pradhan and many other rights activists here, alleged that since the admission in 2011, the school authorities have been harassing his son both mentally and physically demanding more payments.
He further alleged that the school authorities had even kicked out his son from the school. Following the intervention of the Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, the school chairman allowed his kid for reentry, he said.
Odisha Soochana Adhikar Manch convenor Pradhan demanded formation of a Private Schools’ Regulation Commission to streamline the functioning of the private educational institutions in the State, thereby ensuring quality education and fundamental rights of the poor and backward class children.