In riot-hit areas, only 110 students seek books, uniforms from schools

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Till Friday, around 110 students had approached us for books and study material. Of them, 105 requested for uniforms. We were expecting more students. We again asked all principals to contact those who have not visited their schools yet.

BINAY BHUSHAN, director of Directorate of Education

nNEW DELHI: Three days after the government directed all schools in riot-affected north-east Delhi to identify and contact students who had lost books, study material and uniforms in last week’s communal violence, only 110 students have approached their schools seeking help till Friday, officials said.

Binay Bhushan, director of Directorate of Education (DOE), said despite holding special parent-teacher meetings (PTMS) in the violence-hit areas, few students had come forward seeking help. The Directorate on Friday again asked school principals to contact students.

“Till Friday, around 110 students had approached us for books and study material. Of them, 105 requested for uniforms. We were expecting more students. We have again asked all principals to contact those who have not visited their schools yet from the violencehit areas,” he said.

Communal violence broke out in north-east Delhi at a time when students were taking internal and CBSE board exams. While the CBSE class 10 and 12 exams resumed on Monday, internal examinations are set to restart from March 11.

Several students living in the relief camp at Mustafabad’s Eidgah said they were unaware their schools were providing new books and study material. Neither they could contact their schools after the riots nor did the schools reach out to these students.

Muskan and Sonam, both 17, missed their class 12 political science board exam on Friday. The cousins had lost all books and notes when their families fled from Shiv Vihar on February 25. “Right now we just have some notebooks and pens that were distributed in the camp. I do not know how to contact my school. A diary carrying all the contact numbers was displaced,” Muskan said. Their parents are not allowing them to go to the school.

Teachers at Muskan and Sonam’s schools – Sarvodaya Kanya Vidhyalaya Gokalpuri village—said they are not being able to contact those living in relief camps. “We are giving books and study material to every students coming to us. But we are not being able to find out some of them living in relief camps or moved out somewhere else,” said a teacher, requesting anonymity.

Azaad Alam, a class 10 student of government school in Yamuna Vihar living in the camp, said, “Most families here do not have anything left. We do not have mobile phones to contact our schools.” Alam had missed his class 10 science exam held on Wednesday.

Bhushan said it had come to their notice that the schools were finding it difficult to contact students displaced in the violence. “We might now coordinate with NGOS and agencies working in the relief camps to identify such students. We have to provide books and study material to everyone so that they can appear in their exams,” he said.