Mother approaches National Commission to provide free education for her children
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, January 17, 2012: Even though the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 has been implemented in the state, getting free and compulsory education in educational institutions of the state is still a far cry for many who need them the most.

A case in point is that of a poor Muslim mother of four students, who eventually had to lodge a complaint to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to provide free and compulsory education to her three children.

The mother of the three students who filed the complaint has been identified as Iberei Begum wife of Md Nasir Khan of Yairipok Singa Mayai Leikai of Thoubal district.

In her complaint, Iberei mentioned that the her family belongs to a poor, and minority Muslim community and could not afford to admit her three children to a school and pay regular tuition fees.

Although her eldest daughter has been adopted by her grandfather, the other three children living with her are studying in the Career Foundation English School, Yairipok which is at a distance of 2.5 km from their home since there was not a single good government school in the neighbourhood.

While mentioning that she had already submitted a request to the Department of Education (S) regarding her complaint, she complained to the commission to look into the matter since the state education department has not acted on her request.

She stated that her second daughter S M Taskira who passed the class VII examination in 2009 has been admitted in class VIII this year while she could not admit her third and fourth children SM Gihana and SM Ilman Hussain after they passed the annual promotion examination of class I and KG respectively.

In the meantime, Taskira who got admitted in class VIII was also forced to drop out since her monthly tuition fees could not be paid.

Quoting the provisions of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act which stated that "no child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charge or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing the elementary education" and "the school providing free and compulsory elementary education shall be reimbursed expenditure so incurred by it to the extent of per-child expenditure incurred by the state or the actual amount charged from the child whichever is less, in such manner as may prescribed", she appealed to the commission to take up necessary positive action so as to enable her children to continue their further study in the school since there is not a single government school in the neighbourhood which can provide good education to the students.

Iberei Begum also submitted a copy of the complaint filed to the Department of Education (S).

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