BeyondHeadlines News Desk
School children bear the brunt of nonindulgent rules of Andhra Pradesh Open School Society (APOSS), which tightened admission related norms making it difficult for children especially girls from rural areas to enroll.
Established in 1991, the APOSS mainly focused on providing education via distance mode to school drop-outs and those missing Upper Primary stage of education. Among many things, the latest rules of admission make it mandatory for students to submit birth certificate issued by Panchayat Secretary or GHMC, instead of affidavit accepted earlier.
The society, which intends to provide ample access to sustainable learner-centric quality education, skill upgradation and training, made its admission rules strict which directly affect education of girls, according to Dr. Lubna Sarwath from Hyderabad.
In her letter to Telangana State Open School (TSOS) director Venkateshwar Sharma, she noted down how students are getting affected due to these strict admission rules. Below are those points:
1) In the previous years for APOSS Open School admissions to 10th class, affidavit used to be accepted in lieu of birth certificate…but this year director has made it very clear that only Panchayat Secretary or GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) certificate is valid.
2) I am willing to pay the fee with fine… but I cannot accept that they should be denied admission or that their one academic year should be lost for want of a birth certificate… the students mostly girls are in the age group of 15-19.
3) Another point is that, this time online submission has been made compulsory. The online system does not accept the form if aadhaar card number is not given. In this way it is contempt of Supreme Court order which stated that aadhaar card no. should not be made mandatory for any scheme or submission.
4) While on one hand, TSOS/APOSS claims to implement rules of municipal birth certificate. On the other hand, they do not follow the rule to give the students free application cum prospectus. None of the students who approaches the TSOS centers gets the prospectus cum application form free of charge. None get to see the prospectus at all. They only fill up the form and pay the fee told by the TSOS authorized center.
In order to take their education further, thru self-employment skills or further intermediate their having a 10th certificate is a must. Genuine candidates especially girls are being pushed back thru such impediments.
Change in the system of apathy to responsiveness could come with public support.
