Class 2 student ‘made to clean toilet’, probe ordered

GURUGRAM: A seven-year-old student at a government primary school in Gurugram was allegedly forced to clean toilets, prompting the district administration to order a probe into the incident. The school principal has, however, denied the allegation. According to the class 2 student’s father, his daughter Meena was made to clean one of the toilets at Garhi-Harsaru Primary Government School on Thursday.Prem Lata, district primary education officer, said, “I have ordered an investigation into the incident. So far, what we know is that the child had thrown water in the washroom. Whatever the truth is will come out once the probe is over.”The school principal, Veena Sharma, has refuted the allegation. “I am the head of this school, how can I ask the students to clean the washrooms. This is not ethically right. Nothing like this has happened.” Another teacher from the same school, Shobha Sharma, said, “After the morning assembly, some of the teachers told few children going to the washroom to flush water in the loo as a foul smell was coming. We didn’t do anything wrong. We did this to encourage hygiene among the kids.”The school has 255 students from Class 1-5 with eight teachers, two of them being male. “We don’t have a permanent sweeper. The temporary sweeper comes in the morning. We do encourage kids to flush water inside the loos to maintain cleanliness,” said Shobha.On Thursday, TOI found a student painting a blackboard at Government Middle School Shivaji Nagar. This was termed as an extracurricular activity of the school. “The painter did not paint all the blackboards correctly. The paint was left in some boards. In such a situation, children can help us out. This gives them a lot of scope to learn,” said school principal Madhu. “The case of a child painting a black board in school is not in my notice. Such activities should not be done by the students in any school,” said Lata.