Written by: Express News Service
3 min readAhmedabadOct 25, 2013 03:59 AM IST
First published on: Oct 25, 2013 at 03:59 AM IST
Displaying blatant discrimination against minorities in the state,a private school in the city reportedly denied admission to a five-year-old girl on Wednesday only because she was a Muslim.
Acting on a complaint,filed by the mother of the girl with the District Education authorities,an enquiry was marked into the matter on Thursday.
The investigation team will pay a visit to the school in question on Friday.
As per the complaint filed on Wednesday with the Ahmedabad District Education Officer (DEO) (Rural) M K Rawal,a copy of which is with The Indian Express,Zaheera Momin alleged that R H Kapadia New High School,located in the city’s posh Satellite area had denied admission to her daughter for being a Muslim.
On Wednesday afternoon,Zaheera,a resident of Ahmedabad’s Raikhad area,went to the school after reading an advertisement,issued by the school authorities,offering mid-term admission to students.
“I called up the school at the numbers given in the advertisement to confirm the details about the advertisement and the admission in Senior KG. Later at 12.53 pm,I reached the school,” Zaheera said,adding that the school staff was very cooperative till she met the school in-charge,who briefed her about the admission procedure,fee structure and other details.
“I was asked to bring my daughter along for admission the following day. At the time of buying the admission form of Rs 100,the school in-charge asked my daughter’s name. I even
corrected the spelling of her name. Still there were no adverse reactions.
“But when the in-charge asked her father’s name,surname and address,to enroll her name in the register,she suddenly stopped and bluntly told me that ‘the school does not admit Muslims’,” Zaheera said.
She quoted the in-charge in her complaint as saying,“This is our school’s policy.”
When contacted,the Ahmedabad DEO said,“The matter will be enquired. A team will visit the school to verify the incident. In case,the complaint stands correct,action will be taken against the school.”
“There have been several incidents,in which schools have denied admission to students on one pretext or the other.
But this is the first time,when a school has openly denied admission to a student on the basis of the child’s religion. I want to ask the authorities if a Muslim should be denied admission in a country in which all have the Right to Education,” Zaheera exclaimed.
Despite repeated attempts,the school authorities could not be contacted to comment.
A copy of the complaint has been sent to the Gujarat Human Rights Commission,the Human Rights Commission at New Delhi,the Governor and the Secretary of the education board.
Share
