‘Survey of kids not as per RTE rules’

BENGALURU: Amicus Curiae K N Phanindra told the Karnataka High Court that the Out of School Children (OOSC) survey done in January by school teachers cannot be accepted as it was not done in accordance with the provisions of Rule 6 of the Karnataka Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules 2012.

Senior Counsel Phanindra made this submission on Wednesday before a division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S Kinagi during the hearing of a suo motu PIL registered by the HC in relation to OOSC.

In the report submitted as a reply to an affidavit filed on behalf of the the state, the Amicus Curiae stated that if the provisions under Rule 6A, RB, 6C and 6D of RTE Rules were strictly followed, then the number of schoolchildren dropping out would drastically reduce.

This is because the said rules virtually mandate continuous monitoring of schoolchildren’s activities. The proper implementation of these rules would have to be in addition to the annual/yearly survey being conducted for identifying OOSC, he said.

He said in an affidavit dated February 25, 2020, the state said that the department of rural development and the department of urban development will conduct the survey through self-help groups’ members in May 2020. Initially, the government advocate submitted that the door-to-door survey will be carried out in the state in December 2019, which has been recorded by the court in an order dated November 13, 2019.

“Subsequently, in the status report dated December 16, 2019, the state government indicated that the survey was planned from January 6 to 21, 2020. In the status report dated January 20, 2020, the state government indicated that the said survey from January 6 to 13, was carried out using teachers. According to this, 994 children were identified as ‘never enrolled’ and 3,562 children were identified as ‘permanently left’ as on January 18, 2020”, the Amicus Curiae said.He stated that the survey report prepared by teachers and results submitted to the court in the status report dated January 20, 2020, were unacceptable.

The circular issued by the department of urban development specifically mentioned that the survey will be conducted from March 1 to 30. However, the dates mentioned for carrying out the survey, as mentioned in the compliance report dated February 25, 2020, actually differ from the dates in the circular.