Rewari effect: Protest forces admn to upgrade Gurgaon school
GURGAON: Seven hours after the students of Kadarpur school in Gurgaon went on a strike on Friday to get their school upgraded, the government announced that it has been upgraded after the intervention of local MLA.
Sohna MLA Tejpal Tanwar, who had visited the school, later discussed the matter with Haryana education minister Ram Bilas Sharma. The minister decided that the school will be upgraded by July 1. Tanwar said upgradation has already started since the beginning of May. “Admissions to class 11th will start from July 1 after the vacation,” said Tanwar, after getting the assurance from Sharma.
“The school meets the norms to be upgraded to class 12 and it shall be upgraded,” said Sharma.
Earlier, taking a cue from the success of Rewari schoolgirls, the students of Kadarpur government school had sat on protest on Friday outside their institution demanding upgradation from class 10th to 12th.
Around 8 am on Friday, over 250 students locked the gate and sat in front of the school. They were demanding upgradation of the school on the lines of the decision taken by the state government for a girls school in Rewari, where the state education authorities were forced to upgrade it.
Both girls and boys studying in the co-educational institution were demanding upgradation. The protest by the students forced the district education authorities and the SDM, Satish Yadav to rush to the school.
The government authorities tried to assure the students that requisite steps would be taken soon but the students were adamant on continuing the protest.
The students said that they have been asking the education department and the state government to take the step for the last three years but no action has been taken.
The girls have to go to another village for continuing their education, which forces many students to drop out, they said.
“As the school is up to 10th standard only, girl students have to travel to Badshahpur to continue education. However, there is no public transport available and many girls have to give up school. The protest will continue till action is taken,” said Sonia Dayma (15), a class 10 student and resident of Kadarpur.
Arti Dayma, another student of class 10 said, “Our parents can’t afford Rs 20 every day to send us to Badshahpur school for higher classes and the sexual abuse we go through is unacceptable. We girls despite being in groups are targeted by miscreants in public. No man tries to help and we are asked not to raise our voice against any men else our parents will have to suffer.”
The authorities meanwhile told the students that they had already sent their application for upgradation to Chandigarh.
“The request came to us on April 18 and was forwarded to Chandigarh on May 9 for requisite action. Such things will take some time,” said block education officer Ritu Chowdhary.
District education officer Neelam Bhandar, who also reached the spot, told the students to discontinue the protest as the matter had reached an advanced stage.
Satish Yadav, SDM, said that they will take up this matter on priority and tried to assuage the protesting students. However, they refused to go under the shade and continued their demonstration under the sun.
Haryana government on Wednesday had set a precedent and deviated from rules by upgrading a girls school from class 10 to 12 in Rewari district.