In times where the nation is striving for enhancing the status of girls in the social set-up, a block-level education department in Haryana’s Hisar village has issued directions to school principals to ensure that girls were not admitted to a co-educational school when a separate school was available for them.
The directive came in a letter issued around a week ago. It says that as per the norms of the education department when separate schools were available for girls and boys in a village then admissions should also be made accordingly. The letter was issued to two schools – Government Girls Middle School (Class 1-8) and Government High School Co-Educational (Class 1-10) – of Bhagana village on April 29. It also refers to a resolution adopted by the village panchayat in this regard and directed the principals concerned to take action as per the departmental norms and inform the office.
Speaking in this context, District Elementary Education Officer Baljit Sahrawat has said that the directions were issued due to some “misunderstanding” and the official concerned was directed to withdraw them. He further said that as per the Right to Education Act, the boys and girls are free to study in the school of their choice, and some misunderstanding led to issuance of directions. He added that the official has been directed to withdraw them.
Village sarpanch (Village Head) Rakesh Panghal denied that any such resolution was ever adopted by the panchayat.
It may be mentioned that Prime Minister NarendraModi chose Haryana to launch the nationwide campaign called ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ (Save the Girl Child, Educate Her). The scheme focusses on fighting female foeticide and empowering women through education. Haryana has the worst sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 males) and child sex ratio in the country. Out of the 100 worst districts in India for sex ratio, Haryana accounts for 12 districts.
Furthermore, sometime back, to provide monetary assistance to meritorious girls of the state, Haryana government has disbursed Rs. 3.90 crore to 4,595 female students under the education loan scheme.
