News
No school willing to admit girl whose parents work as housekeeping staff
An 8-year-old girl is finding it hard to find an admission in English-medium schools because her parents work as housekeeping staff. Schools cite different pace of learning as the reason for refusal.
Jia Dhulgaj is a typical 8-year-old, precocious, bright, cheerful and full of energy and spirit. But she is very different from many other 8-year-olds she is forced to study in a vernacular medium school much against the wishes of her parents. It isn’t for lack of trying by her parents who work as housekeeping staff in 2 separate offices in Santa Cruz in Mumbai. In fact their profession is a hurdle for her to secure an admission in an English-medium school since the past 3 years.
Karamjeet and Heena, her parents have approached many English medium schools around their house to get Jia an admission but all schools turned them away, with some even not allowing them inside the campus gates.
The most commonly cited reason for turning them away was that Jia may not be able to cope with the pace of an English-medium education. While the parents were shuttling between schools, a good Samaritan from a media firm stepped up to offer help. Vaibhav Vishal is an employee at the firm where Heena, Jia’s mother works. He saw Jia on one of her visit to the office with her mother and offered to help the couple find a good school.
"I have been trying for Jia's admissions since December 2015, yet I feel I have failed her. After experiencing the school's attitude myself, I could imagine how they must have treated the poor parents. I was kept waiting for hours to meet the principal. Some denied admissions over phone itself. While some schools listened patiently, they claimed they didn't have any seat for her. Though she had good grades in Class 2, none of the schools accepted her application," Vishal said.
Though disappointed with the high handed attitude of schools, Vishal has not lost hope and has taken to social media seeking help for Jia. He has even sent tweets to the State's Education Minister, Vinod Tawde, and also tagged the CM. However, so far he has been able to only connect with the Minister's Public Relations team who have taken the information but have not offered any help so far.
Vishal even knocked on the door of RTE, only to realise that the Act is applicable for admissions to the first standard, while Jia is seeking an admission in Class III.