Guardians demand de-recognition
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 29 2013: Taking strong exception to the adamant position adopted by some mission schools to go ahead with admission test for enrolment of new students in defiance of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, the All Manipur Students Guardians Organisation has demanded de-recognition of these schools by the Board of Secondary Education Manipur.

Speaking to media persons today, advisor of the organisation N Tomba stated that the ongoing process of admission test for enrolment of students as done in many mission schools is against the law.

These mission schools have been defying the law and collecting large amounts of money in the name of admission forms/tests, he alleged.

The State Government cannot remain a silent spectator to such arrogant conduct of mission schools.

No admission test should be conducted for enrolment in pre-primary classes, Tomba asserted.

Commenting on the contention that RTE Act does not cover schools run by minorities, Tomba claimed that Madrassas are the real minority schools in the context of Manipur, not the mission schools.

If a school is said to be minority school, the school should teach minority religion and language but this is not the case in mission schools.

90 per cent of students in these mission schools are Meiteis.

Questioning whether the premise of claiming to be minority schools was based on students or management bodies or the schools themselves, Tomba maintained that even if some schools are claiming to be minority schools, all schools should abide by the RTE (Amendment) Act 2012 .

The four Catholic schools are holding exams under BSEM.

As such, they cannot be beyond the purview of RTE Act.

The Government need to take up stringent actions if they are defying the country's law.

There are prescribed syllabi of all classes from Class-I to Class X for all schools under BSEM but there are no prescribed or well-defined syllabi for pre-primary classes.

Given such a situation, it is highly questionable on which syllabus admission test would be held for the pre-primary classes.

The very idea of holding admission test for the pre-primary classes challenges the right to education, he asserted.

No schools should fail any students reading in class IX because Meitei Mayek would be introduced in class IX from this year and students promoted from class VIII are already Meitei Mayek literate.

In case, any students fails in class IX, he/she would be compelled to study with Meitei Mayek together with students promoted from class VIII who are already literate in the language.

This would cause a wide gap among the students, Tomba said.

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