The next one is from my hometown Mumbai.
Just when you thought Right to Education (RTE) will at least ensure decent treatement to all youger kids, here comes a shocker.
What: A school from Tardeo, Mumbai fails three kids in Senior Kindergarten class (thats the class before class 1, for those not familar with Indian Education system). Here is the report in the tabloid Mumbai Mirror.
Why its here: The principal defends her move saying they conducted a comprehensive exam for SEVEN subjects (for Senior KG????) including written and oral exam (:-O) and when the kids failed they also took a re-exam. The kids apperantly failed in that too. The principal claims the kids are "retarded", don't get proper parental attention and in one case, one parent has psychological issues. Apparently, keeping them in the same class will help them build foundations properly. But then what about RTE which says no child should be failed from class 1 to 8? She has the answer ready, they are not in class 1 yet. So we have not done anything illegal.
Forget principal, who the hell made this lady a teacher in the first place? If the children are really mentally deficient, how would keeping them in same class in the ordinary school will help? Shouldn't they be immediately transferred to a special school?
Just when you thought Right to Education (RTE) will at least ensure decent treatement to all youger kids, here comes a shocker.
What: A school from Tardeo, Mumbai fails three kids in Senior Kindergarten class (thats the class before class 1, for those not familar with Indian Education system). Here is the report in the tabloid Mumbai Mirror.
Why its here: The principal defends her move saying they conducted a comprehensive exam for SEVEN subjects (for Senior KG????) including written and oral exam (:-O) and when the kids failed they also took a re-exam. The kids apperantly failed in that too. The principal claims the kids are "retarded", don't get proper parental attention and in one case, one parent has psychological issues. Apparently, keeping them in the same class will help them build foundations properly. But then what about RTE which says no child should be failed from class 1 to 8? She has the answer ready, they are not in class 1 yet. So we have not done anything illegal.
Forget principal, who the hell made this lady a teacher in the first place? If the children are really mentally deficient, how would keeping them in same class in the ordinary school will help? Shouldn't they be immediately transferred to a special school?
This is more sad than stupid :-|
ReplyDeleteFirstly I do not at all agree with the policy of not failing any student. I believe that if such a rule is to be made at all, the right must be with the teachers and not the administrators.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, what the principal is alleging may be the truth. We all know that we should not go by the news paper reports completely. The kids may be little slow in learning but may not be retarded, in which case keeping in the same class may help. Or worse, they could be retarded but it may not be acceptable to parents to send their children to special schools. (Again we all know the aversion people have to such concepts, also see the comments by the principal "the kids don't get proper parental attention").
What I can make from this report as the only mistake of the school is that they did not take into confidence the parents at the time of re-exam.
Harshal, what you say makes some sense. But still failing any kid in KG doesn't make any sense at all. And if they are really retarded, any serious teacher would strongly advise discontinuation of their admission and shifting to special school.
DeleteActually, concept of "exam" at KG level does not make sense at all.
DeleteWhen a just speaking kid responds to "say maamaa", that is also a kind of exam. The question is how do you conduct it ....
ReplyDelete