Late Fee Charges - School Exploiting Parents and Students

Adv Rajeshwer K. Gupta. a parent, has informed me that DAV Public School, East of Kailash, New Delhi is harassing the students and the parents by not accepting and returning cheques of fees for the Oct-Dec quarter without late fee charges at Rs.5/- per day. The school has remained closed up to 17 Oct 2010 on account of CWG. Where is a delay if the fee cheque is presented to the school on 18.10.10? Moreover, as per law, the late fee fine is only five paise per day and not Rs.5/- per day.

CONSULATION MEET FOUND MANY FLAWS IN DRAFT RAJASTHAN RTE RULES, 2010

0ct 17, 2010 - Social Jurist Team consisting of Adv Ashok Agarwal, Law Students Neha Rathi, Nisha Tomar and Aarushi Agarwal participated in a day long consultation meeting on the Draft Rajasthan Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010 organized jointly by Alwar Mewat Institute of Education and Development, Rajasthan (AMIED) and SCERT, Alwar. Number of changes in the draft rules has been suggested.

RTE VICTIM OF GOVT APATHY

On 0ct 16, 2010, Social Jurist Team consisting of Adv Ashok Agarwal, Law Students Neha Rathi, Nisha Tomar and Aarushi Agarwal alongwith Nur Mohd of NGO AMIED visited Govt Upper Primary School, Neemli and Govt Middle School, Bagore of Tijara Block of Distt Alwar (Rajasthan) and found absence of almost all basic physical and academic infrastructure therein.

Govt Middle School, Bagore, Tijara, Alwar, Rajasthan – Some features highlighted –

(i) Sonu, 8 years old disabled child (MR) though allowed to attend the school but has not been formally enrolled. There is no special teacher in the school to teach Sonu. There are over 10 other disabled students in the village who are not even attending the school.

(ii) The school has been upgraded from class VIII to class X two years ago but no teacher has yet been provided to the school.

(iii) Toilet block in bad condition.

(v) Students sitting on floor. There is not desk. The classrooms are in bad condition.

Govt Upper Primary School, Neemli, Tijara, Alwar, Rajasthan – Some features highlighted –

(i) Parents complaining shortage of teachers, students of even class VIII do not know how to write or read, shortage of class- rooms, no play ground, no portable water, toilet block in bad condition etc.

(ii) Dismal condition of the classrooms.

(iii) Class VIII student telling that no teaching at all take place in the school.

Gaps in Corporal Punishment Law

There are serious gaps in the law relating to prohibition of corporal punishment in the schools. Section 17 of RTE Act, 2009 talks of only disciplinary action without saying that such conduct should be treated as serious misconduct warranting major penalties like dismissal, removal and reduction in rank and also without laying down criminal prosecution attracting imprisonment. The provision does not lay down the mechanism to prevent corporal punishment and also to deal with post corporal punishment cases. The children below 6 years and above 14 years have not been included in the provision.

Chilean Miners Rescued - What a Pleasant News

Normally reading morning news papers with lot of bad news lead to some-what dis-comfort. But today's news papers carrying news of successful rescue operation of the miners who spent 69 agonising days deep under Chilean earth has given me immense pleasure and happiness.

A LETTER FROM DEAR FRIEND SHASHANK SHEKHAR

Respected Sir,

I am really grateful to you for putting we advocates on a completely different pedestal, a pedestal where there is a yearning for Equity, Justice and Rights for our children and above all it has got compassion and love for them. Your lecture reflects you and your priorities.

I have got an opportunity to work with you and so I can appreciate and understand it even better. A tremendous lecture in-deed.

Regards,

Shashank Shekhar Advocate & Member DCPCR

Social Jurist Offer of Technical Resource Support

To Empower NGOs, Lawyers and Communities in
USING THE LAW FOR PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT OF THE CHILD TO EDUCATION

After the notification of the Central Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, many non-government organisations, communities, lawyers, Law colleges, Departments of Education of Colleges, Universities etc want to know more about the use of courts for the justiciable right to education.

Social Jurist is a not-for-profit-organisation, which for the past 15 years has been engaged in providing free legal support to children, whose rights to and in education have been compromised.

Social Jurist would like to share its knowledge and experience with others in order to empower them to use the law for the protection of the right of the child to education. To this end, it offers to make its members and associated persons available free of charge, as resource persons for training / orientation programmes organized with objectives such as:

→ To introduce participants to the concept of supporting the right to education through the courts
→ To sensitize them to the role of lawyers (their potential and constraints) in RTE
→ To prepare them to work within the legal framework for the right to education

Typically, such programmes could be of two days duration, preferably on Weekends, or for longer duration on other days when courts are not in session. Alternate Formats with inputs devoted to understanding the RTE Act, and concerns and issues related to the RTE could also be envisaged.

NGOs, communities, lawyers, Law colleges, Departments of Education of Colleges, Universities etc who wish to seek such resource support to their programmes may contact:

socialjurist@bol.net.in; or 09811101923 (Ashok Agarwal)