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Panel highlights discrimination in schools
TNN 28 November 2009, 05:26am IST
Panel highlights discrimination in schools
BANGALORE: Kavya aspires to become a teacher. But she may change her
mind, given the dismal condition of schools. She's from Kelagere
village in Channapatna taluk of Ramanagaram district, which has had
one Anganwadi teacher for the past eight years. "Dalit children also
come to the school, but they face discrimination. They're made to sit
in separate rows and not allowed to mix freely with children of other
communities. Food is served separately to other children and they're
not allowed to touch upper caste children," Kavya said.
Another issue is bad eyesight which forces children like 17-year-old
Roopini to drop out from school. "My father sold land for the
treatment. The teachers and students would tease me. The teacher
wouldn't give me textbooks and notebooks. My parents would buy them.
Other children wouldn't allow me to play and I wasn't included in
cultural events," she said.
Dalit children are humiliated not only by children but by teachers
too. This was one of the observations of the jury panel for public
hearing on the right to education organized by Child Rights and You
(CRY). The panel comprised C S Dwarkanath, chairperson, Karnataka
State Commission for Backward Classes, Mathew Philips, director,
Sichrem, Nandini, ActionAid and B T Venkatesh, human rights activist.
The panel said due to verbal abuse, a large number of Dalit children
drop out. "They (Dalit children) are discriminated in the mid-day meal
and are not permitted to eat with other children. In many schools,
Dalit children are not permitted to cook," panel said.
Besides bad quality of the food, the jury said they were shocked to
find the anganwadi functioning in the toilet area. Also, many schools
have one teacher for several classes and absenteeism among teachers is
a big problem, they said.
Dwarakanath said casteism is playing a big role in education,
especially when it comes to Dalit children. "The children are deployed
to clean toilets. No one is interested in Dalit children. The state
government should come up with clear guidelines that anyone below 18
years should be given education," he added.
Panel's recommendations
* Extend free and compulsory education to all children up to 18 years
* Provide school within 1 km of any habitation
* Single, uniform curriculum for all children
* All schools should have trained teachers for children with
disability, physical accessibility and access to information
* Ensure non-discrimination and stringent violation of rights and
registration of complaints
* Allocate minimum of 10% of GDP to school education
* Make compulsory human rights and gender education
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