NEW DELHI: Amid the spectre of 18 soldiers losing their lives in the recent attack in Uri, the Women and Child Development Ministry is mulling over an option to make education free for the children of the martyrs in private schools they are studying in. The recommendations finalised by the National Comission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) have been sent to all state education ministers by the WCD Ministry, sources said.
If recommendations are accepted by states, then it would be mandatory for all private schools to accept it, failing which, their affiliation to respective education boards would be cancelled, a source told The Sunday Standard. The source added that such a provision already exists in the Right to Education Act but private schools usually do not follow it.
“Private schools which already have Economically Weaker Sections quota, can include students who have lost the earning member of their family in the EWS category under the Right to Education Act,” a source said.
The proposals were finalised at a meeting which was held to look into the problems of children who have to drop out of school due to various reasons. “We are also mulling measures across boards so that any child who loses an earning parent, gets free education”.
The decision on the backdrop of the recent attacks in Uri where many soldiers lost their lives.