Sarita a resident of Harmu Colony with her husband went to one of the city’s renowned school for the admission of her ward in nursery class.
The dreams of the couple shattered when they discovered that their child future will be based on their interaction session with the school principal. Despite not being familiar with English language the couple left no stone unturned to impress the school principal. Ironically, the ward admission was turn down and the reason stated behind this was parents not capable to help the ward in his study. Parents with a heavy heart returned to their homes.
Many parents like Sarita have been through the similar situation but none have gathered courage to raise their voice against it wherein, it is clearly mentioned in Right to Education Act (RTE), under section 12 (1) (c), the schools to adopt an admission procedure which is non-discriminatory, rational and transparent. Moreover, schools do not subject children and their parents to admission tests and interviews in order to decide whether they will admit a child or not.
Although members of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) have written end number of letters to officials of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) urging them to draw the attention of the Government and in this direction and force them to take concrete action in this direction but no positive outcome has been noticed in this direction.
NCPCR state representative Ganesh Reddy said, “It is a bitter truth that Government’s ignorance in this direction has encouraged schools to continue their wrong practice in admission procedure. We have left no stone unturned is spreading awareness regarding provision of Right To Education Act.” According to Reddy the need of the hour is that people must understand their rights and should raise their voice against the malpractices.
Meanwhile, the schools authorities denied of violating any rule in the admission procedure. New area Gandhi Nagar Hinoo St Mary School Principal Father Mathew Thomas said, “We do not conduct interview our teachers interact with the students and parents with the objective to know the caliber of the student. According to the student’s caliber we take admission.” Echoing him, DAV Gandhi Nagar Principal SK Sinha said, “None of the competence students are drop down by the school. Interaction session is done just to make the child familiar with the environment.”