Special child's struggle for school upgradation set for fourth year
Asim, who can't travel and attend classes at another school away from his house due to his disability, stand to benefit if his old school commences the high school section.
Asim, who can't travel and attend classes at another school away from his house due to his disability, stand to benefit if his old school commences the high school section.
Asim, who can't travel and attend classes at another school away from his house due to his disability, stand to benefit if his old school commences the high school section.
Kozhikode: It seems the 12-year-old special child Muhammed Asim, a resident of Velimanna village in Kozhikode, will continue his agitation for convenient access to school in the new year too. He had earlier approached two chief ministers in this regard and had met with mixed response.
On January 22, a protest as well as march would be taken out from the Secretariat under the aegis of the Vikalanga Samghadana Aikya Munnani, said state chairman Kunjabdulla Kolavayal.
Asim, the winner of Kerala government's Ujwala Balyam honour, has already lost one year after the authorities turned down his request to upgrade his school - the Government Mappila Lower and Upper Primary School at Velimanna. Asim, who can't travel and attend classes at another school away from his house due to his disability, stand to benefit if his old school commences the high school section.
“Asim, the eldest of my children, does not have limbs. He writes with his legs and needs the help of his parents at school. He has completed his seventh standard and there is no school in the neighbourhood, where he can be taken by his parents easily. The nearest aided school is 6 km away – St Mary's Higher Secondary School, Koodathai,” said his father Saeed Yamani, a madrasa teacher who comes home only on weekends.
Asim has four younger siblings. “The youngest is just two-and-half years old and his mother can not take him to school and back everyday,” Yamani revealed the family's predicament.
Early demand
The entire Velimanna village had rallied behind Asim in the hope that other less privileged in the area, seeking high school admission, also benefit from a favourable move by the education department.
Asim still hopes his school will get another upgrade as had happened after he had made a special request to the then chief minister Oommen Chandy way back in 2015. The latter had ordered its elevation from lower primary to upper primary school on compassionate grounds.
Unfortunately, Asim's request to the current CM Pinarayi Vijayan was turned down in February 2017. He had made a plea to the CM by writing with his foot. The High Court, the Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and the Human Rights Commission were subsequently approached by Yamani and the school upgradation action committee.
Bureaucratic issues
Earlier this year, the High Court had given nod to start class eight at the school, considering Asim's plight. However, the measures to upgrade the school hit a roadblock after the education department found that only two students are available for the upper class at present. This issue cropped up after the parents of the 37 out of 39 students, who were in class seven last academic year, sought transfer certificate and enrolled them in the nearby schools, to save their children from losing one academic year.
When nearly 132 similar applications to upgrade schools in the state were dismissed, the High Court had directed to take immediate measures to upgrade the Velimanna school so that Asim could continue his studies there.
Yamani now hopes that at least the agitation in front of the Secretariat would help his son.