A 7-year-old girl was, allegedly, expelled from a missionary school in Guwahati for being a ‘slow’ learner and failing to secure better grades in her class, reports The Hindu.
The school principal, however, said that the girl was not expelled and that the teachers had only mentioned the possibility to the girl’s parents.
The father of the child, who sought a written apology from the authorities of Holy Child School, for expelling his daughter, said that he took up the matter with the Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights in March besides approaching NGO Utsah.
Child rights activist Miguel Das Queah who is the executive director of NGO Utsah (Universal Team for Social Action and Help), which works for Child Rights and Protection in the state of Assam, subsequently wrote a Facebook post about the school violating the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
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Although the principle of the school, Lissy Rose, stated that the school authorities were ready to take the child back and have called the father for a meeting, the father of the child maintained that the school didn’t respond when the Commission asked the authorities to readmit the child. The father alleged the school was ‘stirred’ and had responded only after the Facebook post.
Section 16 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 states, “No child admitted in the school shall be held back in any class or expelled from school till the completion of elementary education.”
The father who further accused the school of having behaved rudely with him said that the school authorities failed to turn up for a hearing by the commission on three occasions.
