Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)

Mangaluru, May 29: With schools on the verge of re-opening for the 2017-18 acedamic year, chairperson of State Women and Child Protection Commission Kripa Alva on Monday May 29 announced the introduction of government school enhancement programme to improve the present scenario pertaining to government schools in the state.

Addressing the media during an interaction session here, Kripa Alva said, "Children constitute 40 of Karnataka's population. We are witnessing a lot of harassment of children and violation of child rights. The United Nations has stressed upon children's right to live, right to development, right to participation and right to protection. There is a programme called 'Shaale Kade Nanna Nade' in which we have found that nearly 1,71,000 children have dropped out, and we have submitted this figure in the assembly.

"With this in mind, we are introducing government school enhancement programme as we can notice that government schools are in critical condition as there is no provision of basic facilities for the children. In some parts of the state there are no toilets, drinking water facilities and no fans in classrooms either, while in some there is shortage of teachers," she said.

"Under this programme we are concentrating more on providing basic facilities to children to be comfortable, to check whether there is provision of lights, fans in the classroom. If we are not able to provide fans for the children in classrooms then it is a type of child right violation. It is neccessary for the children due to climatic change. It is impossible for the children to sit without fans for 5-6 hours. We have also noticed that there are no toilet facilities in most of the government schools in the state.

"During my visit to Chikkaballapur, I found that they do not even have provision of drinking water, nor play materials, both indoor and outdoor, which a child needs for all-round development of personality along with studying. Some schools have a single teacher for standards 1-7, so even if there is world class infrastructure but we fail to provide teachers, then all our effort will go in vain. We need teachers to teach them communicative English from class 1. There is also requirement of physical training and music teachers as these need to be taught right from the beginning. There are 45,000 schools across the state, if we implement the enhancement programme in at least 10,000 to 15,000 schools, it will be a huge success," she said.

On the issue of sexual harassment of women and girls, she said, "We are also introducing standard operating prodecure (SOP) for POCSO. We are aware that there is a rape happening every 20 seconds and the 2015-16 statistics say that only 14% of the culprits were convicted under POCSO. We are concentrating on preventation child marriage also. Through Karnataka State Legal Services Authority we are conducting awareness on child marriage in schools where they will be shown documentary on 'child marriage' and 'Shaale Kade Nanna Nade'. Last time around, SAARC countries had recognised our programme and one person each from Karnataka and Odisha commissions took part in the meeting held at New Delhi. This shows how a small programme can make a huge impact."

"We are also identifing the alumni of some government schools who are leading a good life so that they can help in the betterment of their alma mater. No one can break the bond that you have towards the school where you have studied."

When asked about the recent notice issued to a government school for teaching in English medium, she said, "First of all, the school had no permission to teach in English medium. There is no
instruction from the government on starting English medium school. Even though there was loud noise about teaching in English medium, the government has not passed any instruction. This is a departmental faliure, as the school could have been stopped. Even though the school was started with a good intention, a few forces demand revocation of teaching in English medium."

When asked about standard operating procedure under POCSO Act, she said, "There are many stakeholders under POCSO such as forensic, medical, judges, and I feel that these stakeholders are disconnected from each other. We need to bring up the percentage of conviction under POSCO Act."

Press Club president Ronald Fernandes, Dakshina Kannada District Working Journalists' Union president Jagannath Baala and Shrinivas Nayak were present.