EWS girl slapped, then suspended from school

NEW DELHI: The parents of a Class V student who studies in a private school in east Delhi under the quota for economically poor families (EWS) have alleged that the child was slapped by her teacher for wearing 'kajal' and sporting two pigtails, and later suspended from school.
The suspension letter cites misbehavior of her parents as the reason for the action.Her parents said they have submitted two written apologies to ensure that their daughter continues her education.
The school — Mayo International School, Patparganj — when contacted on Wednesday, said it had revoked the suspension. But the family claims they had met the principal but were not told about the revocation.
Pooja, whose father is a worker in a private firm, has been in the school for the past seven years under the EWS category. According to her, she went to school on November 21 wearing 'kajal' and had two pig-tails instead of a ponytail that's allowed in the school. "I was in the art room when the teacher abused and slapped me in front of the class. I was then asked to go to the washroom and wash off the kajal and make a ponytail, which I did," the girl recounted.
Her father, Kamlapati, said he went to the school the next day to ask why the girl was slapped. "The school authorities were very rude and called the guards to throw us out. Realizing this may not be good for our daughter we apologized and in fact have submitted two written apologies," he said.
"We went to speak to the school authorities after Pooja was slapped because we were worried for the child and thought she would take the incident very badly," said Kamlapati.
But things turned worse after the visit. Around 2pm that day, Pooja was called to the school reception. "There they asked about my father and how much he earns. They also asked me about my mother and whether she works or was a housewife. Thereafter, they handed over the suspension letter," said Pooja.
The letter dated November 22, addressed to the parents, states: "Your ward Pooja of Class V-A has been suspended from the school till further orders as you misbehaved with the school staff and used indecent language for her."
School principal Hem Bala denied the suspension had anything to do with Pooja's ponytails or punishment meted out to her by the teacher.
"There are some problems with the income certificate they submitted and that's being inquired into. When this was brought to the parents' notice, they brought a relative with them and he misbehaved with our teacher and threatened her," said Bala.
"I met the parents today and have asked them to start sending the child. The suspension has been lifted and the matter resolved," she added.
But Pooja's father maintains he has been submitting the income certificate every year and the relative they took along to the school was an ex-employee of the school. He reiterated that the school had not asked Pooja to join classes yet.
Padmini Singla, director (education) in Delhi government, said the government has a grievance redress mechanism for such cases. "The parents can complain to the deputy director of education at the district. That's the local authority to investigate such matters."
Times View
Integrating children from economically weaker sections into schools in which a majority of students are from relatively well-to-do backgrounds was never going to be an easy task, but where teachers and schools do not even make the effort, it becomes near impossible. It is important, therefore, that they do make the effort and that where there is clear evidence of ill treatment of EWS children by school authorities the government acts to punish those responsible. If this is not done, the attempt at providing the underprivileged access to quality school education will fail without even getting off the ground.