Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP/RJP)
Puttur, Jul 20: Aggrieved by transfer of teachers from his school, a student reportedly sent a message to the state home minister Dr Parameshwar on Tuesday, July 19 and within ten minutes he is said to have received a phone call from the minister.
Divit Rai, a student of 8th standard in English medium from Haradi higher primary school near here is the student who spoke to the minister. He is the son of Pratima of Nandila here.
As per details, members of the school development and monitoring committees (SDMC), parents of students, and students, laid siege to the office of the block education officer on Tuesday, in pursuance of their demand for cancellation of large scale transfer of teachers in the name of counselling and deployment of teachers found to be in excess. They staged a dharna and warned that they would not send their children to schools till this policy is reversed.
The protest was called by Haradi higher primary school here. Delegations from SDMCs, parents, old students etc from a large number of schools from the taluk came out in support of this demand and participated in the protest.
Jaya Karnataka organization's taluk president, Nellikatte Jagadish Shetty, municipal councillor, Jayalaxmi Suresh, taluk SDMC unions president, Amala Ramachandra, secretary, Dinesh Salian, and a number of other leaders participated.
Addressing the protestors, block education officer, Shashidhar B S, said that he is helpless in the matter as surplus teachers are identified by applying yardstick stipulated in Right to Education Act (RTI). He said that as the commissioner of education has passed instruction to strictly comply with this policy, being a government official, it is his duty is to obey the instructions.
Pained by these developments, Divit reportedly decided to send a message to the home minister the same night. "I am the home minister of my school council. I want to talk to you for five minutes sir," was the text he sent. To his surprise, he received a call from the home minister within ten minutes of sending the message, sources said. Dr Parameshwar patiently listened to the boy and said that he would talk to the education minister and find a solution for the same within a day, it is gathered.
People have appreciated the gesture shown by the busy minister. They said they were happy that even a small boy and a student could approach the minister.
Haradi School has student strength of 432 with 15 teachers and 13 classes. As per the RTI rule, the ratio is correct. Yet, the education department, citing the same RTI rule, had decided to redeploy 4 teachers elsewhere which had hurt the many including students and parents, as it would lead to shortage of teachers in the school.