Tamil Nadu - Erode   

School turns away child labourer

—PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN

B. Gopal, who has been denied admission by a government School. .

ERODE: B. Gopal’s fate is uncertain. After toiling for long as a child labourer and then continuing education at the National Child Labour Project special school, the boy does not know whether he can pursue his study further.

This is because a government school has denied him admission to Std. IX. The school says admission is closed. The 14-year-old stopped education because he “did not feel like studying.” He spent more than two years at a screen-printing factory before being rescued by teachers of the special school on September 1, 2007.

In the eight months Gopal spent at the school, he covered the syllabi of Std. V, VI and VII. His teacher G. Yamuna Devi says the boy is brilliant and has even won in an elocution competition.

As the special school does not teach students after Std. VIII, Gopal had to seek admission elsewhere. Armed with the special school transfer certificate, he approached the government school at Kumilankuttai, which is closer to his house. The school, however, denied him admission citing the overwhelming strength in the class. Sources in the school say that as against the maximum capacity of 120 students in Std. IX, there are 198 students, who have been accommodated in four sections.

They also point to the shortage of space in classrooms and staff members to buttress their claim. The boy says the school being the nearest to his house, he wants to join there.

Sources in the Education Department say a government school cannot deny admission to a student, especially to a boy or girl from a bridge school. They can be denied admission only if the conduct is bad or the age does not match the class.

The Chief Education Officer could not be reached for comments.

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