Findings of concurrent monitoring under Social Audit Exercise on RTE in Bangalore

National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) jointly with South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM) conducted social audit on the RTE Act in Bangalore. The social audit exercise held in 47 schools of 5 wards in Bangalore city namely KR Puram, Shivaji Nagar, Vasantha Nagar, Pulikeshi Nagar and Chamaraj Pet. Schools selected for this exercise were government schools, aided schools and BBMP schools. Private schools have not selected because Government of Karnataka is not notified its state rules during the process was taking place. The major findings of the concurrent monitoring and actions initiated by the team are as follows.

1.      Infrastructure

• All Aided and BBMP schools have building whereas majority of the government schools are running in old buildings which are not all weather structures and there is no proper ventilation.

• All BBMP schools (except GKTMS, Clevelend Town) have neither drinking water facility nor usable toilets whereas all aided and government schools have water connection along with the well maintained toilets. But there are no separate toilets for girls in few government schools and girl children using teachers’ toilets or nearby public toilets. Situation of the toilets in schools is at good condition after the intervention. Hafeezia School, Shivaji Nagar – BBMP, Tasker Town, Vasanth Nagar

• Majority of the schools have no playground at all.

• There is no separate room for the library in all 47 schools. The library books kept in locked cupboard and kept in HMs room. Since it is kept in HMs room no child is ready to enter the HMs room and read freely.

2.      Incentives

• All the children entitled to get incentives such as note book and uniforms have received a set. But uniform being distributed was not as per the child’s size.

• A total of 2335 children from 47 schools are eligible to receive SC/ST scholarships have not applied, because it is mandatory to submit caste certificate during the time of applying for the scholarship.

• Availing of caste certificates is the major challenge to the parents as they are unable to meet the demands of the officials and agents helping them in getting the caste certificate and pay amounts higher than the value of the scholarship.

• The main problem for parents is spending at least 3-4 days in getting caste certificate as it is impossible to avail a certificate in a day’s time and the parents who live on daily wages do not want to lose 3-4 days wages for a scholarship of just Rs 250.

• An allegation made on the officials by the parents was that availing of caste certificate consumes 3-4 days of wages along with at least Rs. 500 – Rs. 1000 of bribe.  Renewing of caste certificate for every five years (it is changed recently) is unscientific and unnecessary process despite caste is never been changed at all.

• There is lack of awareness amongst people about the presence of Nemmadi Kendra’s, the number of centres is very less and it is very difficult for people to access the same in Bangalore. Hence people are facing towards agents to get the same by paying them.

• No child is received free bus pass from the Government directly.

3.       Mid Day Meal

• Isckon, Mausim Shariff Foundation and Adamya Chetana are the major institutions serving food to schools across Bangalore. The main problem with the food is quality of rice is not good to prepare. There is difference quality of rice is being distributed from Isckon to Government and BBMP schools.
• Children are being used to clean toilets, carry and wash Mid Day Meal utensils. No (Group – D) Ayah is been appointed despite Government circulars available relating to appointment of Ayahs in primary schools.

Major Problems with MDM

• Rice is like paste / smashed / turning in to thick.
• Food being served is not as per menu given by the Government.
• Especially the quality of the curd rice is very bad and rice is not cooked well / half boiled / over boiled, so that children don’t eat.
• Food is being wasted when Tomoto Rice/ Pulav is served because there is no curd with it. Incomplete supply and same vegetables used daily.
• Children do not want to eat samber and white rice because quality is very bad. Hence food is being wasted at large amount daily

Other findings

• Teacher using children to domestic works especially Girl children are using for their domestic and personal works as well.
• The computers provided by the Government are never been used at all in all schools. They have been dumped in a room and filled with dust. Now the situation of computers is very bad.
• Food is being wasted at large amount due to the poor quality.
• Corporal Punishment is still practicing in majority of the schools.
• SDMC complained that teacher used to come to school only in the afternoon

Recommendations

• The Government of Karnataka should take initiation to build all weather class rooms (buildings) with drinking water and separate toilet facility to girl children in each school across Karnataka.  And also ensure enough space for playing ground, library with books and water connection in each school.
• It is suggested that a Tahsildar visit schools and provide the children with caste certificates and preferably a drive to be conducted by the Tahsildar deputed by the Government to issue caste certificates to the children.
• Government facilities especially, Bus Pass, Note Book, Uniform and Text Books should reach children on time.
• Using of computers and Books in library must be free to access by children.
• Good quality of food (Rice and Vegetables) must be served to all schools without any discrimination. A standard menu should be followed by each organisation as per the directions given by government and the menu should be changed at least once in a month. We recommend that the appropriate initiatives to be taken to carry MDM utensils and to collect the same on the same day itself so that we could prevent children from washing the same.
• Group D workers should be appointed immediately in every school across state.

The following are the articles carried by different daily’s on the same issue after the Press Meet held on 24th May 2012, 

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Public Hearing on RTE Act and Recommendations

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act – 2009 (RTE) came in to force from April 1, 2010, with the aim of providing free and compulsory education to all children aged between 6 and 14 years. Though the Act came in to force, changes taken place in the state is yet to be seen. Due to lack of awareness among people, strong political will and private schools lobby, responsible governments (Union and State) have totally failed in effective implementation of the act. Karnataka state has even failed in notifying the rules. As a result many issues are arising at schools which are direct violation of the RTE Act–2009. Even after witnessing many such issues arising at schools, neither education department officials nor school authorities are taking appropriate initiatives to resolve them. There is no proper redressal mechanism in the state to solve these issues at district and state level. NGOs working at grassroots level also are facing problems in solving the issues due to lack of proper redressal system at state level.

Though, there are many complaints on RTE violations filed with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) few cases have been solved and many of them are still pending with the commission. In order to speed up the problem solving process in the state, it is necessary to strengthen the other mechanisms at district level to address issues pertaining to RTE violation.

To create wide spread awareness among people on the provisions of RTE Act and to provide a platform to depose cases of violation of RTE, CACL-K in collaboration with SICHREM had organised a Public hearing on RTE and its redressal system on March 21, 2012,  at Senate Hall, Bangalore University Campus, Bangalore. The programme is also acted as a tool to pressurise the state to address violations relating to RTE. About 100 participants from various parts of the state took part in the public hearing, where 11 cases of gross RTE violations were deposed before the jury.

The Jury members for the day were Dr. H.S Dore Swamy (Freedom Fighter), Ms. Kathyayini Chamaraj, (Child Rights Activist, Civic), Mr. Mathews Philip (Karnataka State Representative-RTE, NCPCR), Mr. Vasudeva Sharma (Member, KSCPCR).

The Public Hearing started with a presentation of photo snaps on the situation in the background of RTE Act implementation. The reality check reflected upon the violation of RTE Act includes, children engaged in manual work at school premises, children forced to serve coffee and food to teachers, scavenging school toilets, cleaning the school campus, washing huge utensils used to serve mid day meal, poor quality of mid day meal, children washing and cleaning vehicles of teachers and poor infrastructure in schools, etc,.

Mr. Lakshapathi, Core Committee Member, CACL-K, introduced the subject relating to the status of RTE and its implementation in Karnataka. He highlighted various violations under RTE. He further spoke about school drop outs, the reasons behind it and a few incidents of behaviour of teachers on students. Mr. Lakshapathi questioned that how can students be engaged in manual works at school premises by teachers. He added saying that, the lobby of private schools against RTE is a major drawback, which has lead to privatization of education and it simultaneously affects the right of free and compulsory education of 80,00,000 (Eighty lakh) children from 50,000 schools across Karnataka. While concluding his introduction Mr. Lakshapathi condemned the efforts of the state to close down the schools in the name of merging sighting less number of students in schools.

Kinds of cases deposed at the public hearing:   

• Teachers extracting manual work from children during class hours.
• Child severely injured due to collapse of classroom ceiling.
• Children being used to sell Newspaper during class hours.
• Corporal Punishment in schools
• Denial of Admission
• Denial of issuing hall tickets to take SSLC and PUC exams
• A child severely injured due to collapse of the Compound wall.
• Children forced to serve teachers (washing bike and serving tea and food)
• School authorities demanding caste certificates from children at the time of enrolment.

The hearing was concluded with the following recommendation by the Jury members,

• The state should notify the RTE rules immediately, without any further delay, and enable lakhs of disadvantaged children to get a right to free and compulsory education.
• Redressal mechanism for reporting violations of RTE must be made clear under the Act.
• There must be a separate cell to resolve, monitor and implement the issues related to RTE at KSCPCR.
• There should be a special committee to address the issues relating to infrastructure. Further, the head-masters of schools should be held responsible for addressing the issues and to register FIRs against the violators of child rights, for example, engineers, contractors, and School Development & Monitoring Committee, if they are responsible for the violations.
• Education Department to evolve guidelines to address any accidents to children that occur within the school campus and also about the available assistance and compensations provided by the government.
• Obtaining and issuing of caste certificates to children should be the responsibility of the school authorities.  School authorities should not demand it from the parents.
• There is a need for wide publicity with respect to RTE, by using various means and appropriate IEC materials and capacity building exercises.
• Trainings on RTE must be conducted in order to make people understand about the main features of the Act, actions to be taken if RTE is violated and the existing redressal mechanisms.
• KSCPCR is said to have completed enquiry into a few cases of violation of child rights in schools. In a few cases action has been initiated by citing Karnataka Civil Service Rules (KCSR). There is a need to make use of such cases to educate the school authorities on actions to be taken if child rights are violated in schools and hostels.
• RTE watch groups to be established at various levels such as, village, gram panchayat, clusters, wards, etc.
• The grievances or the complaints lodged must reach the grievance cell as and when it is filed; if delayed, there are chances of justice being denied to children.
• There is a need for continuous discussions with respect to RTE among people at various levels; this is in order to encourage and to spread the essence of RTE to the larger public.
• Authorities such as CWCs and KSCPCR should not hesitate to take up suo motu cases to address various violations of RTE.  Similarly, police also should take cognisance of child rights violations.
• There is a need for life skills education and healthy sex education at school level. This has to be incorporated in the school curriculum and taught in the formal education.
• Inclusive education must benefit differently-abled children. Although these children are enrolled in schools, they are prone to be school dropouts. In order to address this issue, every school must ensure that after enrolling children with special needs to schools, the school authorities strive towards retaining them in schools and ensure that they complete their elementary education.

Note: According to a Social Audit conducted by SICHREM in 47 schools of 5 wards in Bangalore city, more that 2000 SC/ST children have not applied for scholarships because of the complications in getting the caste certificate and the corruption involved in the system. 

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Regional Workshop on Enforcement of RTE Act – Koppal

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Training on Concurrent Monitoring of RTE Act

National Commission for Protection of Child Rights organised a training on Concurrent Monitoring of RTE Act at Jagori Training Centre, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh from 15th to 19th October 2011. This was a introductory training for the District Coordinators and Block Monitors of NCPCR’s Social Audit program at Karnataka, Odisha, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Assam. Mr. Gangadhar, District Coordinator along with Ms. Margaret, Ms. Chithra, Mr. Prakash, Mr. Nirmal and Mr. Srinivas, the 5 Block Monitors from SICHREM participated in the training.

Regional Training Workshop on the Enforcement of RTE – Secunderabad

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Mangalore: SICHREM Calls for Implementation of Right to Education Act

Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (PS/CN)

Mangalore, Aug 27: ”Karnataka is one of the states which has failed to implement the Right to Education Act which was enacted in April 2009 with the objective of providing free and compulsory education to every child in society. Moreover, there is need for collective opposition to the cancellation of 25 percent reservation for poor students in private schools,” opined Philip Mathew, director, South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM).He was speaking at the awareness programme organized at SDM College hall on Friday August 26.

“Already 60 petitions are pending in the Supreme Court urging cancellation of such reservation. This is against the interest of society and children of poor people will be cheated of an education,” Mathew said and called for a people’s movement to create awareness on the issue.

“In a few ‘prestigious’ educational institutions only academically brilliant students are given admission which is again violation of the Right to Education Act. All these issues will be brought to the notice of the government,” he said.

In the debate session held with the audience, the parents grabbed attention by raising issues like punishment for acquiring less marks, upper floor class rooms allotted to LKG and UKG students, and a preference for English medium education among others.

Responding to the issues, Mathew said that complaints about these should be lodged with the local DDPI. During the discussion, people said that there is a need for the government to consider employing expert English teachers in government schools. Also, the government should not use school teachers for other government activities.

Human rights activist R Manohar was present.

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=113552&n_tit=Mangalore%3A+SICHREM+Calls+for+Implementation+of+Right+to+Education+Act

Paper clippings of the meeting on Right to Education organized by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) at Mangalore on 26th & 27th August 2011

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Regional Training Workshop on the Enforcement of Right to Education Act – Tirupathi

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State Level Training of Trainers on the Right to Education Act 2009 – Karnataka

Training of Trainers on Right to Education Act 2009 for Karnataka was held in Nisargadharam, Dharawad from 3^rd to 5^th August 2011. 23 participants from various districts of Karnataka participated in the training. The training focused on training the trainers to monitor the implementation of RTE Act at district level and to develop people at the grassroots to raise their voice against violation of RTE.

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State Level Training for Trainers (TOT) on the Right To Education Act 2009 – Andhra Pradesh

SICHREM in collaboration with Campaign Against Child Labour - Andhra Pradesh(CACL-AP) organised a 3 day State Level Training of Trainers on the Right to Education Act – 2009 held at Pastoral Training Center, Guntoor, Andhra Pradesh from 25th to 27th July 2011. 25 representatives from all districts of Andhra Pradesh participated. The objective of this program was to train the trainers across Andhra Pradesh on the Right to Education Act .

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