CUDDALORE:
The Education Department's directive that no student should be detained and everyone should be promoted up to Standard VIII is being violated with impunity by certain schools, according to Equal Education-Tamil Nadu, a service organisation.
In a representation sent to the Director of School Education, the Cuddalore chapter office-bearers, M. Nizamudeen and R.V. Lenin, president and secretary, said all schools, including private, aided, matriculation and government-run schools, are bound by the directive.
However, certain school managements did not want to keep the slow-learners on their rolls, fearing that they could not produce cent per cent results. These schools usually call up the parents of such students and tell them to submit requisition letters seeking transfer certificates. If the parents refuse to oblige, they are made to fall in line by threatening that their wards would not be promoted, and, adverse remarks made on their transfer certificates.
It was tantamount to compulsory expulsion of students and violation of the provisions of the Right to Education Act. Most of the students were studying in the same schools from kindergarten level and, therefore, if there were shortcomings in their learning ability, the onus was on the schools to rectify them through special coaching. Instead of correcting their teaching methodology, blaming the students and sending them out was objectionable.
What was disconcerting was that even certain government schools adopted such an arbitrary practice, fearing transfer of teachers and headmasters who might show poor results.
Therefore, to eliminate such unhealthy practices, the forum suggested proper invigilation on the part of the Chief Educational Officers to verify whether the requests for transfer certificates were genuine or given under duress. If it had come to the notice of the Chief Educational Officers that an element of compulsion was involved in the issuance of transfer certificates, stringent action should be taken against those schools. Mr. Nizamudeen and Mr. Lenin also appealed to the parents that if they had any such complaint, they could call 9843943932 and 9500200094.
Sources in the Educational Department told The Hindu that many such complaints were received over phone and, hence, a circular had been sent to all schools saying that if any deviation is noticed in regard to issuance of transfer certificate or giving promotion to students, approval would be withheld for release of the results.
