Even as the debate about the alleged discrimination against children admitted under the 25 per cent quota of the Right to Education (RTE) Act in Oxford English School, Nandini Layout, rages on, the school management, which had remained incommunicado, has finally come out in its defence.
Ajit Prabhu, the correspondent of the school where locks of hair of the children admitted under RTE were allegedly cut last week, spoke to The Hindu after the private school management associations met officials here Thursday.
Mr. Prabhu said the hair of Class 1 students was cut not by the teacher, but by one of their classmates. And, the hair of those not under RTE quota too was cut.
“The crafts class was going on. Chirag (name changed) (who cut the students’ hair) had [a pair of] scissors. When the teacher Rupa (name changed) turned towards the blackboard, he cut off the locks of four children — two admitted under RTE and two others. The teacher took him to task, informed the principal and the parents were summoned the next day. During the meeting, parents of students whose hair was cut, got violent and ended up beating up Chirag’s father,” he said.
After that, some parents whose children were under the RTE quota contacted Narayan of the Dalita Samrajya Sthapana Samiti. His men barged into the class when Rupa was teaching, pulled her out and manhandled her, Mr. Prabhu said. “She was freed with the intervention of some Class 10 students. She is still [rattled] and we don’t know if she will come back.”
When asked about the names of the children admitted under the RTE quota not being in the attendance register and not being given homework, he said: “They are included in the attendance register. They were not given homework after considering the learning differences as the other children had studied LKG and UKG.”
