Why don't officers send their wards to govt schools, ask kids

Students from various schools sought answers to several pertinent questions from officials at an interaction programme organised by the Karnataka State Child Rights Commission on the occasion of World Child Rights Day on Sunday.

Why do government officers and teachers send their children to private school and not government-run schools, Arun K Shinde, a student from the government boys higher primary school, Kamalanagar, wanted to know.

In reply, Roopa Nayak, a member of the commission, said that the government was being pressured to make it compulsory for government officers, teachers and
politicians to send their children to government-run schools.

Biggest reform
It would be the biggest reform ever, if such a rule was introduced. It will help in improving the quality of education and infrastructure in government schools, she said.

A few students had questions related to the Right To Education (RTE), malnutrition among children, child labour and action being taken to bring back dropouts to school.

The officers asked students to dial the helpline 1098, if there were any cases related to children.

When one of the officers spoke about rules being amended in a bid to stop child labour, Dr Kripa Amar Alva, chairperson of the commission, felt that there was lack of enforcement and gave instances of trafficking in Hassan and Haveri and child labour at a bag factory in Chickpet.

Child beggary
Answering a question as to why child beggary still persists, IPS officer Sonia Narang blamed lack of enforcement of law.

“It is difficult to locate parents of children who are begging, if the parents belong to a different state,” the officer said. She, however, had no specific answer when asked about registering cases in this regard.

Kripa said she had asked the government to provide eggs to school students at least two days a week along with mid-day meals.

Philomena Lobo, director of Public Instruction and Secondary Education, suggested the heads of government schools to approach corporate houses to provide funds as part of corporate social responsibility to improve infrastructure in the schools.

No answers
To some questions, even the officers did not have answers.