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From:
Rakesh Jain <notification+kr4marbae4mn@facebookmail.com> Date: Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 7:08 PM
Subject: [Right to Education] Education Act fails to rescue parents, children...
To: Palash Biswas <
palashbiswaskl@gmail.com>
 | Education Act fails to rescue parents, children in UP
Shailvee Sharda, TNN,
Right to Education (RTE) Act|Nursery admissions|Anshumali Sharma|Ankita Verma
LUCKNOW:
The trouble could have been avoided had the UP's education department officials acted on time to implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
Section 13 (1) (read with section 2 (o)) of the act categorically says that while admitting a child, no school or person shall subject the child or his/her parents to any 'screening procedure'. Section 2 (o) defines the term 'screening procedure' as a method for admission of the child in preference over another.
TOI recently spoke to a number of schools in Lucknow to find out about various criteria of admission. There was no uniform policy and a significant majority of schools admitted that they would base their decision on 'interaction' with the parents.
Fancy statements like 'if there was an environment for education in the family or not' gave interactions a unique mandate for the schools.
"Pressure on the child and his/her parents because of admissions cannot be explained in words. We send kids to kindergartens, pre-schools etc only to ensure that the child puts his/her best foot forward at these interaction," said Ankita Verma (name changed) who has applied in four schools for her daughter's admission.
Section 12 (1) (c) of the Act provides that unaided schools and specific category schools shall admit at least 25% of the strength of class 1 or pre-primary level (as the case may be) with children belonging to disadvantaged groups from the neighbourhood and provide them free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education.
But none of the schools knew how to go about it. "What do we do in the absence of rules and regulations. We cannot implement the Act," lamented the principal of a convent school.
"Thousands of disadvantaged children from across the state would have benefited had the education department authorities drafted a policy to this effect," said Anshumali Sharma, a child rights activist in Lucknow. Acting on memorandums drawing attention towards the problems, the department of school education and literacy, ministry of human resource development (MHRD), has issued guidelines to this effect.
The document says that schools shall follow a system of random selection to admit children. For the 25% seats for children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections, random selection is the only criterion.
But for the remaining 75% seats, it allows the schools to formulate a policy under which admissions are to take place. This policy could include a criterion for categorisation in terms of school's objective but on a rational, reasonable and just basis.
The MHRD underlined that there shall be no profiling of the child based on parents' educational qualifications, no testing and interviews for any child/parent.
The selection would be done on a random basis. Schools should put the policy in public domain, publicise it widely and place it in their prospectus explicitly. The admission should be made strictly on this basis.
When asked to comment, secretary, primary education, Anil Sant said, "The process is underway and we hope to finalise it at the earliest." The rules, however, may not be able to help parents and children this year. |
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Palash Biswas
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http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
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