THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While her friends are busy filling their application forms for their graduation, Anjana A V, a native of Kilimanoor, is still waiting to cross the tenth standard. The girl, who was a student of Raja Ravi Varma (RRV) Central School, has remained as a Class X student with 47 days of attendance for the last three years. Her parents blame it on the school authorities, who, they say, have deliberately tried to hinder the course of their daughter’s education.According to the parents, Anjana was mentally harassed by her teachers during the academic year 2009-10. When Anjana complained, the parents demanded TC from the school in August 2009. The parents allege that the issuance of TC was delayed by the school citing different reasons on various occasions. Finally, when the TC was issued, it showed that the student had not completed her course and that she had not attended the exam. The parents say that even though they had demanded the TC at the beginning of the academic year, it was issued only in December."We had never asked them to pay the exam fee for the board exam. But they paid the exam fee, as a result of which hall ticket was issued by CBSE. Hence, when the mark list came, the column of Anju showed ‘absent’ in all the exams. When we went to other schools, they denied her admission saying that a student who had remitted the examination fee and whose mark list showed her as absent for all the subjects cannot be given admission,’’ says V Vijaya, mother of Anjana.However, the school authorities say that Anjana was never harassed by any of the teachers in the school. ‘’She was an irregular student. When it was time for registering for the tenth board exam, we tried to contact her parents. They did not respond and we paid the examination fee since we had not received any application for TC from the parents,’’ says Manorema Philip, Principal, RRV Central School.The Principal says that the Anjana’s TC was filled in consultation with the CBSE. ‘’We got the application for TC in November 2009. Since Anjana had only 47 days of attendance, we contacted CBSE and following their direction, we filled it as ‘course not completed and exam not attended’.’’ But the parents of Anjana say that they had applied for TC in August itself and quoting a document obtained via RTI from CBSE, say that the school had never intimated CBSE about the attendance shortage of the student. When the matter was brought before the District Collector, a new TC was issued to Anjana by the school which said that she is eligible for further studies. But the parents refused to accept the TC till the Collector assured them an admission for Anjana in any other CBSE school in the city."I have gone deeply into the matter and has issued a draft letter to the parents regarding Anjana’s admission in a city-based CBSE school. It is a case of a child’s future and I wish parents accepted the fresh TC. Even the school where she studied has expressed their willingness to admit her. But the parents simply won’t accept that,’’ says Dinesh Arora, District Collector. Meanwhile, the future of Anjana continues to be uncertain as she is yet to be admitted in the school where the Collector had recommended. "In the letter, it was said that the child had to discontinue her studies due to financial reasons. Hence, the school refused to admit her,’’ say the parents.
Comments
0 comment