Appeal to remove obstacles hindering children's right to gain admission and complete school education

 To,

The Education Minister

GNCT of Delhi

 

Subject: Appeal to remove obstacles hindering children's right to gain admission and complete school education 

Sir, 

Lok Shikshak Manch would like to highlight some issues causing denial of admission to students in government schools - 

1. There seems to be a lack of proper orientation of school teachers, especially admission in-charges and class teachers, on childrens' right to education. It has been found in several cases that students are being denied admission or re-admission at school level on various grounds; namely, inadequate information of the concerned in-charges, ambiguity in DoE's own process of admission, at places, leading to varying interpretation, lack of sympathy towards children from deprived/difficult backgrounds etc. For example, if a student does not have a Delhi-based residence-proof, then s/he is often denied admission. Very often, infrastructural constraints, like lack of adequate number of classrooms, too lead to such denials. Minor mismatches of student's details in Aadhar, Birth Certificate, SLC also often lead to harassment and denial in admissions. 

Just like workshops and trainings have been conducted on issues like POCSO & gender sensitisation, a similar drive should be conducted for educating teachers about admission rules and guidelines. There needs to be a platform where teachers can share and clarify issues they face on ground and feel empowered enough to ensure admissions to all children, across all grades. Such a platform will go a long way in informing the authorities as to what kinds of rules-regulations and practices are coming in the way of the constitutional obligation of the state towards ensuring children's rights. This will then help in reforming any anti-child and anti-constitutional bias in rules and practices. 

2. In order to build confidence among parents regarding their child's right to education, regular advertisements should be broadcast on radio and TV, display boards outside all schools should carry prominently details about the RTE Act provisions, the mandate and contact details of the DCPCR, and contact details of concerned offices/officials in case of any violation of children's rights to admission and education. Empowerment of parents in this regard is the key to counter any bureaucratic high-handedness, whether at the school level or at other offices.

3. The education department should seek information from schools on the number of students whose names have been struck off in the last four-five years in Class IX-XII, study reasons behind the same and take steps to curb malpractices in this regard and guide schools to contact and make effort to bring back all students willing to continue and complete their studies.

What could be more unfortunate than the fact that the trend of striking off studentes' names has been rising in the context of increasing pressure upon schools to give 100% board result. There is no dearth of students in our schools who or whose families are struggling with medical or financial difficulties. We need to provide them greater academic and administrative support, instead of pushing them out of the school system for garnishing our results. 

A clear message that schools should leave no stone unturned in ensuring retention of children in the regular system will be of great help in checking any violation and insensitivity in this regard.

4. Though the department has made efforts to enroll two-times failed/one time failed students of Class IX and one-time failed students of Class X under NIOS, many parents are rightly wary of enrolling their children in this parallel layer of education system where the child is denied timely admission and various grants and scholarships etc. Many students, especially girls, are not in a position to travel to the assigned NIOS nodal school centres which are far off from their homes. 

Moreover, a whole category of students whose names get struck off mid-session are ineligible to get admission under the system of NIOS on the ground that they had not appeared in the final exams. This leaves them, due to a lack of information and options, vulnerable to harassment and exploitation at the hands of middlemen who charge high amount of money for enrolling them privately in NIOS. 

 

We hope that your office would look into the above-mentioned issues and take suitable steps to ensure children's right to regular and complete school education.

Thanking you 

Copy to

Chairperson, DCPCR

President, GSTA