It’s your right…

Children get to learn that they have the right to education, expression, nutrition, and recreation amongst other things.

July 02, 2012 04:31 pm | Updated 04:31 pm IST

Be aware of your rights! Photo: Renuka Phadnis

Be aware of your rights! Photo: Renuka Phadnis

For the past six years, government and aided schools in Mangalore have been teaching students about children's rights under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Teachers tell children about their right to education and to good health, the good habits they should cultivate and how to ask for their rights.

Question box

Geetha, Assistant Project Coordinator, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Dakshina Kannada, said that every class has a box into which students can put chits of paper with whatever questions they have in mind. Once every week, the box (called the “Makkala Hakku Kosha” or the “Child Rights Question Box” is opened in the presence of the headmistress and the teacher and the queries are answered. The children ask a wide range of questions. Some say that their teacher is not paying attention to them. Or, they ask questions about things that worry them and sometimes about their subjects. The student may or may not mention his name on the chit.

The awareness programme has been introduced particularly because the attitude of children towards teachers has changed.

Joanna Coelho, Headmistress Incharge, Infant Mary's Higher Primary School, said that it is challenging to teach children because they are difficult to handle, especially as some come from broken homes or are abused. So a programme that brought about awareness among them about their rights was good.

Another teacher said that the questions the students put into the question box were mostly about Maths and other subjects they were studying in school.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.