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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Will RTE prove to be a boon to children of lesser god?

Will RTE prove to be a boon to children of lesser god?

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published Published on Apr 28, 2012   modified Modified on Apr 28, 2012

-The Deccan Herald

Despite being one of the highly literate districts in the State, the scenario in Government schools is not very encouraging. There are several schools in taluk like Belthangady which have adequate number of students but have been running the show with just one teacher for all classes and all subjects, writes Bhakti V Hegde

When fundamental rights ensured for every individual in the Constitution is violated, there is provision for every citizen to go to the Court of law seeking justice.

But when the fundamental rights pertaining to Right to Education is violated, will the plea for justice be heard? Shikshana Sampanmula Kendra in Dakshina Kannada district has been looking into this aspect specially after seeing several and continued cases of violation of basic aspect of Right to Education, ie., the right of every child to have adequate number of teachers in the schools (government).

Citing examples of three schools in Belthangady taluk, namely Gandibagilu Government Primary School, Miyar Government School near Neriya and Sullyodi Primary school, where there is only one Government teacher each for the substantially stronger student ratio, the Kendra has decided to lodge a complaint with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, local authorities and subsequently the Deputy Commissioner seeking justice to the students who have been deprived of their basic right.

As per Right to Education Act, every 60 students should be given two teachers and in case there is vacancy, authorities must take steps to fill the vacancy in three months.

In case of Sullyodi School, there is a pro-active School Development Monitoring Committee (SDMC) which has taken the school to a different level in terms of implementation of government schemes and holding various activities for children. But over the last three years, the school has been running with one teacher for the total strength of 34 students and the SDMC could not do much to solve the problem. This teacher named Y V Kumar from Mysore has been taking classes for all the subjects. The SDMC President Lingappa Gowda after visiting all the departments seeking appointment of a teacher finally worked out a solution. The SDMC appointed a local graduate to assist the teacher and this additional teacher is paid Rs 2,500 after collecting Rs 50 from each student, on consent from parents.

“On one hand, there is a Damocles sword of school closure hanging over us and on the other, the Government is not bothered to sustain the schools that have been performing well,” said Gowda expressing his pain.

It is said that in Gandibagilu, there are 98 students and going by this, there should be two teachers working here. However, even this school has only one teacher left after another teacher was boycotted by villagers for attending the school drunk.

Miyar School has not had appointment over the last five to six years and here a local TCH candidate has been appointed as done by Sullyodi.

Surprisingly, whether the Education Department officials are unaware of the situation or they pretend to be blind to the fact, during the Zilla Panchayat meetings, time and again the officials say that in Dakshina Kannada district, the teacher to students ratio is 1:27 and the department has no records with regard to the schools which are run by single teachers.

Speaking to City Herald, Padi-Valored, a NGO working for quality education, Director and Member of Shikshana Sampanmula Kendra Renni D’Souza said that despite the State not notifying the RTE rules, the decision of the Kendra filing a complaint still holds good as in such a situation the Central rule prevails.

“The state can only compliment the Act, it cannot contradict the Act. Hence the rules notified by the State will be in compliance with the Central rule,” he said adding that very often the teachers who take up duty in a particular village school take sick leave and join on deputation elsewhere. “All this and more needs to be looked at more critically,” said D’Souza adding that the Department has no statistics on the schools which do not have adequate number of teachers.

It is only recently that Zilla Panchayat released the report by a NGO named Prajayatna, which ascertained that Belthangady taluk itself has six schools with single teachers.

“This disheartening state of affair has compelled us to look at the option of seeking justice, a provision provided under RTE Chapter 6,” he said.

On one hand, the Department says that there are surplus teachers for primary teaching and in the district, the teacher-student ratio is 1:27. If this is the case, solving the problem of schools with single teacher cannot be a major problem. With many more instances of single teachers slogging at remote villages imparting education to students, the Gandibagilu, Miyar and Sullyodi cases can only be a tip of the iceberg.

The ones working for bringing about qualitative change in education scenario in the region say that somewhere department needs to make an sincere effort to solve the problems and as a first step, the department must conduct a survey to assess the number of schools genuinely requiring teachers.

The Deccan Herald, 27 April, 2012, http://www.deccanherald.com/content/245313/will-rte-prove-boon-children.html


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