School terms 9-year-old 'characterless' for complaining against teacher

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Gonda (Uttar Pradesh): A school in Gonda district in Uttar Pradesh has certified a 9-year-old boy as characterless in his Transfer Certificate in a bid to punish him for complaining against his teacher. The move could hamper the child's admission in any other school and can also destry his career, said a parent. According to reports, the boy studies in Class 5 in Chatarauli village. He had got into a quarrel with a few of his classmates last month for which the teacher allegedly thrashed the boy.

Despite the boy's parents lodging a complaint against the teacher with the school principal, the latter had refused to act on the matter. Upset over the inaction, the parents threatened to withdraw their child from the school.

The boys parents then asked the principal to issue the Transfer Certificate but they received a shock of their life when in the TC, the boy was termed as 'characterless' under the designated column. The parents said that the school management had issued them such a TC in a bid to punish the boy for complaining against the teacher.

"With this remark on the transfer certificate, my son will not get admission in any other school. The principal has played with the future of my child," the distraught father said. The district education officer in Gonda said that an inquiry has been ordered into the incident and action would be taken against those found guilty.

While the school in Gonda appeared in news for the wrong reasons, another school in Uttar Pradesh was appreciated for right reasons. In a novel experiment, students of all government schools in Uttar Pradesh will now create their own kitchen gardens and grow fruits and vegetables of their choice. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has issued instructions to all the government schools, up to Class 8, to include the produce from the kitchen gardens in the midday meal. "When children will work hard to grow vegetables and are asked to eat them, the vegetable will taste different to them for the simple reason that they would already have had developed the connect," said an official in the Education department.

The idea behind the scheme is to boost the nutritive value of the midday meals and also encourage children to grow plants, vegetables and fruits. About 2,500 schools in the state already have their kitchen garden raised by teachers and students much before these instructions came. Such schools can play a major role in helping others on deciding things like who would take care of the garden when the school is closed.

As per the MHRD instructions, those schools that do not have land available can raise a terrace garden and use pots, containers or bags. The gardens will have to be managed by the children, mainly with the help of staff and teachers.

Edited by mid-day online desk with inputs from IANS

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