The Hindu : National : HIV+ students’ future uncertain

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Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007
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National

HIV+ students’ future uncertain

Staff Reporter

Committee of parents formed to decide on solution
Children were allowed into school only to write exams

KOTTAYAM: The future of HIV+ students who were ousted from the lower primary school at Pampady here still remains uncertain. The five students, three of them HIV+, were ousted on World Aids Day last year and attempts to take them back were rebuffed by a section of the parents who have threatened to take away their wards from the school if these children were readmitted.

“We have not been able to send them today [Tuesday] as we fear that the psychological impact of the drama being enacted in their name would be too much for them. So far, they have been able to attend classes only for two days during the new academic year,” said Sr. Alphograce who is in charge of the children at Asha Kiran, the rehabilitation centre which looks after the children.

We shall now wait for one week, when we are expecting some kind of a decision from the authorities on their future,” she added.

The latest twist came on Monday when Bishop Paulose Mar Pakomios, Manager of the Malankara Orthodox Church (MOC) Schools, which runs the Mar Dionynius Lower Primary School held a meeting with the protesting parents. The Bishop assured the parents that their views would be given serious consideration when a final decision would be taken within the existing legal frame work.

A five member committee of parents was also formed at the meeting and it was decided that a solution would be found in a week’s time.

The five children, four of them girls and one boy who are in classes I to IV, were allowed into the school only to write their annual examinations last March. “We were asked to bring them after the examinations started and had to take them the moment they had completed their examinations,” said Sr. Alphograce. Their entry to the school for new academic year was celebrated by the media, but it now appears that the hype was short lived.

School authorities too are in a bind as the threat by the protesting parents looms large over the future of the school. “There were assurances from the authorities that the the school and services of the teachers would be protected. But so far we have not received anything in writing,” said Elsamma Mani, headmistress of the school.

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