The Times of India: Ahmedabad: Saturday, April 14, 2012.
Did you know that under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, schools - private and state run or aided - are not supposed to fail students in primary sections? The act has been in force since 2009 and neither the school authorities across the state nor the education department has done much to spread the awareness among parents and teachers.
It was an RTI application by advocate Kamlesh Bhavsar from Saraspur in September last year that revealed that despite the act being in force, schools located in his neighborhood have been failing students with impunity from class I class VII. Besides this, schools also failed to adhere to the RTE norm of providing 25% seats to the poor students.
On Bhavsar's RTI application, the DEO forced the schools to provide their data which revealed that 128 students were failed in five private schools in Saraspur. When parents demanded an explanation for the failure of their children, the schools refused to answer. The parents had been complaining for sometime that teachers in some schools have been pressurizing them to enroll their children for home tuitions with the class teachers. The parents formed an association called Saraspur Gram Sabha (SGS) to address the issue.
Bhavsar had sought details of the number of failed students from Sarswati Kumar Shala (1,2), Asian Primary School, Nalanda Vidyavihar, NK Primary School and Sri Gurunanak Vidya Vihar.
"This is a major racket in many schools where lowly paid school teachers fail students in primary standards and force parents to send their children for home tuitions. If a teacher can teach well in tuitions, why can't he remain the same good teacher in his class. Even municipal schools fail children and do not maintain such data," says Bhavsar.
It was an RTI application by advocate Kamlesh Bhavsar from Saraspur in September last year that revealed that despite the act being in force, schools located in his neighborhood have been failing students with impunity from class I class VII. Besides this, schools also failed to adhere to the RTE norm of providing 25% seats to the poor students.
On Bhavsar's RTI application, the DEO forced the schools to provide their data which revealed that 128 students were failed in five private schools in Saraspur. When parents demanded an explanation for the failure of their children, the schools refused to answer. The parents had been complaining for sometime that teachers in some schools have been pressurizing them to enroll their children for home tuitions with the class teachers. The parents formed an association called Saraspur Gram Sabha (SGS) to address the issue.
Bhavsar had sought details of the number of failed students from Sarswati Kumar Shala (1,2), Asian Primary School, Nalanda Vidyavihar, NK Primary School and Sri Gurunanak Vidya Vihar.
"This is a major racket in many schools where lowly paid school teachers fail students in primary standards and force parents to send their children for home tuitions. If a teacher can teach well in tuitions, why can't he remain the same good teacher in his class. Even municipal schools fail children and do not maintain such data," says Bhavsar.
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