Wednesday, 11 July 2018

Delhi school locks up 5-year-olds in basement as punishment


Try and wrap your head around this:

Fifty girl students, all about five-years-old, were locked up for five hours in the basement of the school building from 7:30 am to 12:30 pm because apparently their parents delayed in paying the school fees. They were left without food or water, while the temperature soared to 40 degree Celsius and the humidity hovered around 70 per cent!  Delhi News

And this happened in the national capital, in Chandni Chowk area at Rabea Girls’ Public School.

The incident came to light when parents went to pick up their kids at the school and found the girls missing. Shahbeen Hasan, a father of two, later lodged an FIR against the school and its principal with the local police station. In his complaint, he said: “I dropped my two daughters to school at 7:30 am. When the girls didn't return after school hours, I went over to find out what happened. Not finding my daughters in their classrooms, I approached school staff and I was told that some school children had been locked in the school basement since morning.”

An FIR has been filed against the school management, including Farha Diba Khan, the school principal.

After the details of the incident came out in the public, Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia asked the Directorate of Education (DoE) to file the report as soon as possible. Sisodia today also Tweeted to say that he will visit the school tomorrow along with the chief minister.

The incident has raised the hackle of parents, who are demanding strict punishment against the school management.

Ashok Agrawal, an advocate who is representing the parents, said, “I am waiting to see what action Delhi government is taking against this school, and I will then take the matter to court.”

He added, “Last month, we filed a PIL with Delhi High Court, asking the state government to take over a school in the event of a school set up on private land fails to provide better infrastructure or safety to the schoolchildren.”

In continued, “In the past, several private schools on private land have been closed down, owing to several reasons. It is therefore necessary that the government takes over such schools. Shutting down a school owing to problems is not really a good idea.”