Children Languish Without Education As India’s Laws Go Unenforced
(Times of India)
January 11, 2012
BANGALORE, INDIA– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daili] Syed Umer Farooq wanted — wants — to become an automobile engineer but was forced to leave school after class VII because no school wants him. And the law is not helping either.
Syed is now 18 and suffers from muscular dystrophy. He completed class VII in 2009 from Shradhanjali Integrated School (SIS ) in Lingarajapuram, Bangalore. SIS, which is a special school, only goes up to class VII and Syed has been looking, increasingly desperately, ever since for another school to take him. But in the two years since 2009, he’s been refused admission by 30 schools.
The revolutionary Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 will not come to his rescue for he falls outside of its purview. According to the RTE Act, a child is entitled to free and compulsory education till the age of 14. But Syed is already 18, so the schools are able to turn him down without fear of prosecution.
Adding to the confusion, another law — The Persons with Disabilities (Equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation ) Act, 1995 — says every child with a disability has the right to free education till the age of 18.
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