THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has ordered the state government to take necessary steps to reconstitute the classes under lower primary and upper primary categories of school education system.
The commission ordered that the lower primary classes should be till Class V and upper primary till Class VIII. Earlier, classes upto Std IV were categorised under lower primary and those from class V to VII were listed under upper primary.
The order was based on Section 6 of Right to Education (RTE) Act stating that appropriate governments and local authorities to provide for children’s access to elementary schools within the defined area or limits of the neighbourhood.
As per the Act, the Central Government has attempted to exemplify this in the Model RTE Rules circulated to states, which provide for distance norms of one kilometre for children in classes I-V, and three kilometres for children in classes VI-VIII, as also provision for relaxation of norms in places with difficult terrain where there may be risk of landslides, floods, lack of roads and in general, danger for young children to reach school from their homes.
The commission decided to issue an order based on the request of a school at Vavode which is at a remote location in the district. The UP school at Vavode has been closed for a while due to a shortage of students.
The Kallikkadu grama panchayat has recommended opening the school.
The students of Vavode school between the age of 6 and 14 are now studying in Mylakkara UP school.