UGC-NET Examination December 2012 - UGC admits its mistake - Shruti Jain & Amandeep Kaur get NET Qualified Certificates

Shruti Jain & Amandeep Kaur through Advocate Ashok Agarwal had filed writ petition in Delhi High Court highlighting that the answer key uploaded by UGC on its website in regard to NET Examination held by the UGC in December, 2012 was an incorrect answer. According to petitioners, option B is the correct answer whereas as per the key, option A was the correct answer. The High Court by orders dated 12.07.2013, directed UGC to consider the issue in the light of books and literature submitted by the petitioners. The UGC after High Court orders, examined the issue and found that option B was the correct answer and issued NET Qualified certificates to both the petitioners on Friday, 11/09/2013.

Corporal Punishment - 11 class student writes to Advocate Ashok Agarwal Against Delhi Govt School Principal

JOIN DOWN TO EARTH ACTIVITY - LAWYERS + TEAM SUNDAY 08 SEPTEMBER 2013 PROGRAMME AT PITAM PURA (SLUMS), DELHI

Lawyers Plus Team of Social Jurist led by Adv Ashok Agarwal shall visit Slums at Pitampura (Jhuggis opposite to Gopala Mandir, Pitampura, Delhi) on Sunday September 08, 2013 from 8.00 am to 10.00 am to interact with the slum dwellers (door to door) on right to education and right to health. Those interested to join us may please reach at 8.00 am sharp at G.D. Goenka la Petiti (Playway School) R P Block G P Block Pitampura, Near TV Tower and at walking distance from Netaji Place Metro Station . Ashok Agarwal, Advocate M-09811101923 07.09.2013

Jahangirpuri students write RTE Postcards to Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice highlighting sorry state of affairs in schools

SOCIAL JURIST A Civil Rights Group To Hon’ble Acting Chief Justice Mr. B.D. Ahmed High Court of Delhi New Delhi: 110003 August 27, 2013 Subject: Sorry state of affairs in Government and MCD run schools in Jahangirpuri Respected Sir, As part of our effort to critically analyse the position of implementation of right to education, the Social Jurist team, visited a stretch of slums in the Jahangirpuri area on Sunday 04.08.2013 and gathered feedback of students residing in the locality regarding the state of the schools. The students expressed their experiences and views regarding the Delhi Government-run and MCD schools in the area on post-cards addressed to your Hon’ble self. The findings are being briefed up hereunder. The children who wrote post-cards were mainly distributed among three schools: (i) the MCD Primary School, Jahangirpuri, Government Girls Senior Secondary School, K-Block, Jahangirpuri and Government Boys Senior Secondary School, K-Block, Jahangirpuri. A handful of students from the locality were attending to the Government Boys Senior Secondary School, A-Block, Jahangirpuri and the Government Girls Senior Secondary School, A-Block, Jahangirpuri. The problems that have surfaced from the study of these post-cards seem to be part of the common story about all the Government and MCD-run schools in the city: lack of hygiene, unusable toilets, lack of access to drinking water, poor electrical arrangements, lack of desks, lack of discipline, teacher-absenteeism, teachers’ misbehavior and so on. Forty postcards having been written by the students are attached hereto for your kind consideration. MCD Primary School, Jahangirpuri (8 post-cards) • Students from this school have expressed the hardships faced by them due to absence of usable toilets in the school. The toilets meant for students remain very dirty, stinky and unusable. The better ones are reserved for the teachers and if students dare use the same, they are assaulted at the hands of the teachers for doing so. • There is also no proper provision of drinking water in the school. The taps give out unclean water misfit for drinking. • There is a problem of frequent power-cuts in the school. • The mid-day meals are not supplied properly or in sufficient quantity. Moreover, students are engaged for serving mid-day meals. Further, the students are made to stand in a row and eat their meals. • There is massive scarcity of benches in the school. Besides the same, the school premises and play-ground get water-logged during rains, adding to the problem of lack of hygiene. Government Girls Senior Secondary School, K-Block (16 post-cards) • Insects found in mid-day meal on one occasion • Insufficient quantity of mid-day meal served in school • Toilets remain very dirty; on complaining to teachers, they in turn scold the children • Lack of cleanliness in school premises • Children have to stand in the open sun for morning prayers • Studies not properly conducted in the school; proper attention not given to studies • Students not encouraged to ask questions; rather, they are scolded and insulted if they are unable to understand and ask queries • Some teachers have a very positive attitude and are concerned about the students’ future • Mid-day meal not supplied on time • No proper provision for toilets in school • No adequate provision of benches in the school; three children have to share a single bench • Problem of indiscipline and physical fights among students • While exiting the school premises, girls have to face harassment in the nature of obscene and sexist remarks from boys who come for the second shift school • Water collects in the school during rains • Several teachers do not take their classes; many teachers do not report to school in time • Shortage of teachers in school • No proper provision for playing in the school • No proper arrangement of drinking water in school; out of four installed water-tanks, only one is functional • Overcrowding in classrooms • Insufficient, broken and non-functional fans in school Government Boys Senior Secondary School, K-Block (14 post-cards) State of amenities, provisions and hygiene • Toilets in the school remain locked; students have to go in the open for call of nature • There is no proper drinking water facility in the school • The school authorities have complete disregard for hygiene and cleanliness in school. The conditions in the school are very unhygienic. • The school faces the problem of water-logging during rains, which worsens the prevailing unhygienic conditions • Electrical fittings such as fans, bulbs and tube-lights are missing in many classrooms • On some days, mid-day meal is not supplied in school Teachers’ performance, behavior and state of administration in school • Teachers generally behave rudely and abusively with the students. They even assault students and make them sit on the floor for asking questions. • Hardly 3-4 teachers come to school on a given day; sometimes even they go missing. Most of the teachers do not come to school in time. As a result, out of 8 periods, only two to four are conducted on a given day. • Teachers are least interested to teach the students. Studies are not conducted properly in the school. • Students have to stand in the sun for prayers which may be particularly taxing upon the students’ health in case the school is an evening-shift school. • Physical fights are common among students; general discipline is poor. Government Girls Senior Secondary School, A-Block (2 post-cards) • School toilets are in a dirty and unusable state. • There are no functional fans in class-rooms. • There is an enormous over-crowding in class-rooms. One of the students has written that there are 64 students in her Section of Class VII. Government Boys Senior Secondary School, A-Block (1 Post-card) • There are no functional fans in class-rooms. • There is a lack of general discipline in the school; truancy is rampant among students and the same remains unchecked; most of the children leave school at recess. Under the RTE-PIL-Postcards campaign as well as visits to the schools, it has been a general experience that schools of both categories, the ones managed by the Delhi Government and those managed by the MCD, are plagued by problems of very fundamental nature and are far away from the goal of providing quality education. It is indeed a misfortune that after 66 years of independence, the government has not been able to ensure the very basics such as teacher-attendance and hygiene even for the schools in the Capital city. The questions such as raising the bars of education, rethinking, debating and redrawing the goals of our education-system are nowhere in consideration as we are still struggling to arrange the basic infrastructure and conditions even for elementary education. In these circumstances, your constructive interventions are sought so as to trigger a change in the hopeless state of things. With regards, Ashok Agarwal, Advocate Advisor, Social Jurist M: 9811101923

JOIN DOWN TO EARTH ACTIVITY - LAWYERS + TEAM SUNDAY 18 AUGUST 2013 PROGRAMME AT BAWANA

Lawyers Plus Team of Social Jurist led by Adv Ashok Agarwal shall visit Slums at Bawana, Delhi on Sunday August 18, 2013 from 8.00 am to 10.00 am to interact with the slum dwellers (door to door) on right to education and right to health. Those interested to join us may please reach at Bawana JJ Bus Stop at 8.00 am sharp. From 10.30 am to 12.30 pm, there will be RTE PIL POSTCARD CAMPAIGN meeting in which over 100 students of classes V to XII of various MCD and Delhi Government Schools of the area and also their parents are expected to participate and to write postcards to Delhi High Court Chief Justice on 'STATUS OF EDUCATION STATUS IN SCHOOLS AFTER 3 YEARS OF RTE Act, 2009.' Contact person Ms. Uma Devi M-8800413297 Ashok Agarwal, Advocate M-09811101923 17.08.2013

EVEN UNRECOGNISED UNAIDED SCHOOLS TEACHERS ARE ENTITLED TO 6 PAY COMMISSION SALARIES - HOLDS DELHI HIGH COURT

In a far reaching judgment, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Valmiki J. Mehta of Delhi High Court has held that S. 10 of Delhi School Education Act, 1973 which mandates that the salaries of the employees of an unaided recognised private school shall not be less than those employees of the corresponding status in the Government school even apply to teachers working in unrecognized unaided schools. “In this Public Interest Litigation (Social Jurist, a Civil Rights Group vs. GNCT & Ors) the Division Bench of this Court has specifically laid down the ratio that the provisions of Delhi School Education Act and Rules, 1973 will apply even to unrecognized schools which are run in Delhi”, Justice Valimiki held. This ruling came on a petition filed by the 19 teachers of St. Anthony’s Girls Primary School through Advocate Ashok Agarwal claiming payment of their salaries in terms of 6 Pay Commission Recommendations. The school claiming itself an unrecognized unaided school pleaded before the Court that S. 10 of Delhi School Education Act, 1973 was not applicable to its teachers. Rejecting the school’s plea, the Court held that the Act even applied to unaided unrecognized private schools and teachers claim was justified and were entitled to salaries in terms of 6 Pay Commission with 6% interest. The Court also ordered initiation of contempt proceedings against the members of the School Managing Committee after finding that the school has taken up a blatantly false stand before the Court that the school is not recognized in spite of the fact that recognition had been granted way back on 02.06.1979 by the Director of Education. The Court has issued contempt notices to the members of the School Managing Committee to reply by 30 September 2013. Copy of the Judgment attached. Ashok Agarwal, Advocate M-09811101923 16.08.2013

SECURITY OF SERVICES OF TEACHERS IN UNAIDED PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Valmiki J. Mehta J of Delhi High Court in one of its recent judgments has referred to Article 21-A (right to education) of the Constitution of India for the benefit of teachers employed with the unaided private schools in Delhi. A common unjust practice to employ teachers on probation by unaided schools and to continue the same for years together without confirmation in service is being followed. Such teacher always remain under the threat of termination of services without remedy. The Hon'ble Judge applying Article 21-A of the Constitution has laid down the maximum period of probation as three years while interpreting Rule 105 of the Delhi School Education Rules, 1973.