To
The Lieutenant Governor
Government of NCT of Delhi
Raj Niwas, Raj Niwas Marg
Civil Lines, Delhi-54
December
1, 2014
Subject: Mother objects teacher beating
Class V EWS girl-student—Defiant Mayo Intl. School expels student
Sir
This is to draw your attention towards
glaring high-handedness on the part of Mayo International School, I.P.
Extension, Patparganj, New Delhi-92 which not only inflicted corporal
punishment upon Baby Pooja, an EWS student of Class V, but on protest by the
parent, has also suspended the child from school sine die. (Suspension-order
attached). The present case highlights a policy of stark discrimination against
EWS students followed by the school, besides its insensitive approach towards
students generally and archaic practice of corporal punishment.
On 21.11.2014, Baby Pooja, a Class V-A
student, was slapped by her teacher Ms. Dolly and humiliated in front of the
entire class for the amusingly absurd reason that she had come to the school
with two pony-tails. The next day, Baby Pooja’s mother Mrs. Mamta (M-
9871600757) met the errant teacher and complained that the child ought not to
have been beaten up, that too in front of the entire class and the teacher
instead should have sent a note in the child’s diary. The teacher got furious
over this and retorted that the parent ought not to have come to school with
such frivolous complaints as the school had been ‘obliging’ them as the child
was studying under EWS category. The teacher, joined by the Principal and the
Manager, further threatened the parent to expel the child from school and
instructed the gate-keeper to force the mother out of the school premises. At
the end of the same day, Baby Pooja was handed over a suspension-letter by the
school, thereby suspending the child from the school sine die over the alleged
ground of her parents having “misbehaved with the school staff and used
indecent language for her.”
It is needless to state here that the
action of suspending the child on the part of the school is absolutely illegal,
grossly illogical and violative of the provisions of the RTE Act, 2009. It is
also discriminatory against the EWS student and places the EWS child at a
disadvantage vis-à-vis the general students. Inflicting corporal punishment
upon child is itself illegal and violative of the provisions of the RTE Act,
2009. Moreover, the child’s studies cannot be interrupted over an alleged
dispute between the parent and the school, that too, when the child is studying
in an elementary class. It is in any case a matter of right of the child to be
protected from corporal punishment and maltreatment by the school and a right
of the parents to protest against the same, which are in no manner diminished
by the fact that the child is studying under the EWS category. Such an incident
creates a bad precedent for all the students who have been studying under EWS
category as a matter of right in various schools across the country.
You are therefore requested to take urgent
cognizance of the complaint and ensure that the child’s studies are forthwith
resumed and further that appropriate action is taken against the errant teacher
and the school-authorities for harassing the parent and the child in the
above-stated manner.
Yours truly
Ashok Agarwal, Advocate
National President, AIPA
M- 9811101923
No comments:
Post a Comment