Right to Education...not every child's right???

Hey All,

Monsoon have hit the ground already. I realise that Bangalore is awesome in the monsoon weather..ohohh I am only talking about the beauty of the weather not the situation of the roads and overflowing drains. Sad that the city's infrastructure couldn't handle big storms properly.

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Right to education, is a basic right that every child should be allowed to access. It’s a shame on those schools which fight against this. What are they trying to teach at schools by resorting to such protests? Economic inequalities are to be supported? They better tear the pages out of the social studies books which list the fundamentals rights of a citizen. We criticize our government for not bringing reforms to improve the literacy rates and when government acted in a proper way, we refrain from implementing it? What kind of hypocritical society are we living in?

Today, education is kind of business masked with service motto. Off late, private schools started taking children from weaker sections as part of the RTE Act, 2009., of course just for the namesake. The schools who all deny this act are definitely worried about their businesses more than anything. From the huge amounts of donations they levy on parents, a paltry 25% would ruin nothing.  The recent agitation by the private school association in Bangalore is the proof for those bad business motives.


The worst part is that, one of such schools in Bangalore have stooped to the level of discriminating the underprivileged who were admitted as part of the RTE Act by cutting off their hair and not letting them to be a part of the rolls or classwork. Should that still be called as a school??? How barbarious are they? Stringent action should be taken against this disgustingly discriminating act of that so called "school". Would that be cancelling the recognition, let it be...because it does not deserve to be a school any more.

The new schools which have mushroomed in the last decade have changed the entire education system. Not all, but most of them have become money minting organizations. And most of them do not even come close to the basic standards/amenities that they should be complying of. Schools with suffix terms such as 'international', have the basic amenities but turn out to be super expensive. It is quite surprising that parents also tend to favour these so called fancy named schools rather than a school which actually is good but doesn't come with a fancy fee tag. I am so fortunate that my parents preferred a school which very much stood for its name. I am still proud to say that I belong to that school and thankful to the entire faculty for bestowing me with all basic knowledge, manners and behaviour.

It’s hypothetical to determine who the actual culprits are in turning education to business. Its again a demand-supply theory. Forget the higher education; the basic education must be accessible to everyone in the country. Like countries abroad, the basic quality education is free to every child in the country. Although we have government schools which cater free education, they are often ignored due to lack of proper infrastructure and the medium of instruction being the regional language. Ironically, most of the so called fancy schools lack to provide minimum no of facilities, yet parents prefer to send their children to such schools by paying huge amount of donation and fees. Lot of parents opine that, such schools allow their children to sustain the competitive world. But most of the time, they lose the race in learning basics to become a better individual.

The RTE Act’s 25% quota for underprivileged weaker section children in private schools is a good move. To deny this, is very inhuman, and sheer discrimination. Its time those protesting school authorities realize their mistake and be a part of the positive change. Wish the reservations in India would also change in terms of economical background rather than communal background.

Cheers
Jyostna