’Even children of criminals have the right to education’

'Even children of criminals have the right to education'

MiD DAY's front-page report on a Juhu school asking for character certificates from parents ('Are you a criminal?', February 2) has spurred the state education department into taking immediate action against the management.

Taking serious objection to the condition put forth by Maneckji Cooper School, education officials issued a notice to the school yesterday and asked them to withdraw the requirement of a character certificate from admission norms with immediate effect.

State Education Minister Rajendra Darda said, "Soon after reading the article in MiD DAY, I instructed Deputy Director of School Education Sunil Chavan to verify the facts stated in the article and told him that it was a very serious issue and the government should intervene."

A team from the education department (west zone) visited the school and, on making enquires, found that the school had, indeed, asked for the character certificates.

According to the minister, the school management, in its explanation, stated that it wanted to keep the students and the school away from any criminal activity.

Darda said the school was asked to withdraw the condition and a more serious step wasu00a0 not taken as it has been in existence for a long time.

"Right to education applies to every child irrespective of the parents' criminal background. No child can be deprived of basic education by any school. In the future, stringent action will be taken against all schools who dictate their own terms and conditions for admissions," he said.

The management of Maneckji Cooper has been asked to remove the circular about the certificates from the school notice board and clear its stand on the issue. A notice was issuedu00a0 to the school by the education inspector (Jogeshwari East).

P Pawar, education inspector (west zone), said, "We went to the Maneckji Cooper school to serve them a notice that they should withdraw the condition. The principal said she will speak to the management and follow the instructions."

Parents relieved

"The notice served by the education department has come as a relief. I had to leave all my other work in order to get the certificate and it's good to hear that we will not have to bother about it anymore," said a parent who has applied to the school for his child.
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Jayant Jain, president, All India Federation of PTA, said, "Why should parents have to approach the government? A law should be put in place that if any school violates the Right to Education or misbehaves with parents during the admission process, it should be considered a criminal offence."