Sexual abuse in schools must end

The sexual abuse of a minor, allegedly by a non-teaching staff of a reputed international school in Bangalore, has opened a can of worms for the Karnataka government. The government has to fight to save face due to the increase in the number of such incidents (eight cases in as many months) and the corruption prevalent in the education system that the incident has brought to the fore.

The victim was a student of the nursery section, a section for which the school did not have the requisite permissions from the government. A probe revealed that the “international school” was running the nursery sections as well as 6th and 7th standards though it was permitted to admit students only for standards 1st to 5th. But how was this possible? What was the BEO (Block Education Officer - the government official responsible for monitoring schools in the respective blocks) doing all these years? How did the school manage to run the sections illegally by collecting thousands of rupees as fees from parents?

When confronted by angry parents, who were unaware of the illegal status of the school, the government pointed fingers at the management. Well, it was clear that the management and the BEO had a tacit arrangement. The government was quick in suspending the jurisdictional BEO concerned, but his predecessor was let off scot-free.

This one incident showed how the government officials have deliberately played into the hands of the management of rich schools. This definitely is not an isolated case because there are scores of schools in Bangalore that are operating illegally by extorting heavy amount as fee from the parents because the management of such institutions is neither accountable nor answerable to any authority.

Bangalore is home to several “international schools” offering multiple curriculum including Karnataka state syllabus, ICSE and CBSE. The annual fee of such schools ranges anywhere between Rs 1.5 lakhs and Rs 5 lakhs depending on their popularity. Securing an application for admission to such schools is considered lucky. If the parents are called for an “interview”, they should consider themselves fortunate because the process lacks transparency.

If a student manages to get admission into such a school, the parents are forced to follow the instructions laid down by the management. No parent has the liberty to question the teaching staff or the management on the style of functioning of the school. In case parents of students form an association to protect their interests, such wards are promptly issued with Transfer Certificates because either their mom or dad dared to be democratic.

Such issues go unnoticed in Bangalore because everyone wants their children to get the best of the education. In the process, there is acute lack of transparency with the government choosing to look the other way. Even now, the government does not have the mechanism to inform the residents of the city as to how many schools have the requisite permission to operate specific sections.

The recent episode was an eye-opener for Bangaloreans. Only after parents took to the streets posing questions to the government did the officials concerned agree to release the list of schools that had obtained the requisite permission.

So what is the fate of the students who are studying in the nursery sections and the higher primary sections, which are being run illegally? Shockingly, the government has no answer, as it has sought more time resolve the matter.

The government has emphatically declared that it has directed all its 204 BEOs to conduct a detailed inspection and ascertain how many schools are illegally running sections without approvals. Though the plan appears ambitious, the result of the inspection is unlikely to be known anytime soon until another incident occurs.