Haryana villages to get grants on star ratings Now, Panipat village girls protest for school upgrade
Protest comes days after the govt upgraded a school in a Rewari
: More than 6,800 villages in Haryana will henceforth get star ratings—and consequently, government grants—on the basis of developmental works done there, initiatives taken on the social front and other parameters, official sources said on Sunday.
Days after the government issued notification for upgrade of a Rewari school following a hunger strike by girl students, yet another school has launched a similar protest. About one dozen girl students of Government Secondary School at Nangal Kheri village of Panipat district locked the school and held a protest demanding an upgrade.
The girls even gave a four-day ultimatum to the government to meet their demand, failing which they threatened to go on a hunger strike and block traffic on National Highway 1.
The protesting girls also got support from the villagers and elected representatives of the village panchayat.
Interestingly, the school for which the girls and village sarpanch Suman Devi are holding the protest does not fulfil the required norms for upgrade.
As per government norms, a secondary school can be upgraded to senior secondary school if there are no other senior secondary schools within a radius of five kilometres. But the school in Kheri Nangal village has two other senior secondary schools, (separate for girls and boys), in the Shiva village, which is only one kilometre away from Nangal Kher. An official of the Haryana education department, on condition of anonymity, told HT that the government’s decision to upgrade the school in Rewari after a protest by girls has given out a wrong message.
The school does not fulfil the conditions for upgrade as there are two senior secondary schools close by UDAY PRATAP SINGH, district education officer, Panipat. We do not know anything but our school must be upgraded as our girls do not want to go to Shiva village SUMAN DEVI, sarpanch of Nangal Kheri village
“Now, some villages are using girls and women of the village to press for their demands even if the demand is wrong,” he said.
However, unaware about the rules, the educated sarpanch of Kheri Nangal village is also backing the protesting girls. “We do not know anything but our school must be upgraded as our girls do not want to go to the school in Shiva village,” said Suman Devi, sarpanch of Nangal Kheri village, adding that the demand has been pending for the past six years.
Meanwhile officials of the education department are now under pressure from the protesters. “It is true that this school does not fulfil the conditions for upgrade as there are two senior secondary schools close-by but we have written to the government for upgrade,” said Uday Pratap Singh, district education officer, Panipat. “We cannot open a school in anybody’s house, a school requires students, building and staff, but we cannot do anything,” he added.