Rights body pulls up govt over Right to Education students’ plaints

BHOPAL: National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (

NCPCR

) has warned the

Madhya Pradesh school education department

over complaints of ‘torture’ of underprivileged students enrolled under

Right to Education

Act (RTE) in private schools.

The order issued by deputy secretary, school education department, Pramod Singh directs the district education officers (DEOs) to ensure that the RTE quota students are not ‘tortured’ by schools. The order mentions the letter sent by NCPCR pointing out violation of RTE Act by private schools.

“According to the NCPCR letter, it has received complaints against private schools which are harassing RTE students for school fee. Therefore, DEOs are directed to look into the matter and take appropriate action,” reads the order. The letters says that the children should not be made ‘scapegoats’ of someone else’s fault.

“It appears to be a financial matter which must be solved by DEOs, parents and schools. Children should not be harassed at any cost, otherwise the department will take strict action against officials.”

Referring to section 75 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, the deputy secretary asserted that the complaints received by NCPCR are in clear violation of the Act. NCPCR has also pointed out that schools are violating RTE act by recommending different publishers and additional books to children.

To check such practices, the commission has recommended that the education department must monitor the curriculum strictly and evaluate the criteria followed by state board through the

State Council of Educational Research

and Training (SCERT) and ensure that the criteria is in accordance with the National Curriculum Framework (

NCF

).

The recommendation comes under Section 29 of the RTE act, which says, “The curriculum and the evaluation procedure for elementary education shall be laid down by an academic authority to be specified by the appropriate government, by notification.” The notice issued by NCPCR says the recommendation has been made to limit the scope of discrimination in education under the RTE Act. “It was observed that the same is being violated by schools by not following the curriculum and evaluation procedure as per the NCF laid down by the academic authority,” the NCPCR told the school education department.