Kerala government order to admit HIV-infected children to school

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Dear forum

I am herewith attaching a report published by the New Indian Express on 10 th

June 2007.

Asha Kiran told to admit HIV-infected children to school

T'PURAM: The State Government has asked the Asha Kiran authorities to admit the

five HIV-infected children to MDLP School in Pampadi, Kottayam, on Monday.

The government has also said that if both the instituions fail to obey the

orders, their recognition and registration would be cancelled. The directive has

come following the reports that these children were denied admission at MDLP

School since they were HIV-infected children.

However, the Health Department team which visited the Asha Kiran and the MDLP

School has submitted the report stating that 'the Asha Kiran authorities, which

is the caretaker of these children, are not sending them to school'.

The government has decided to facilitate the admission of these students and has

issued strict warning to both the managements since they have already defied the

directive from the Education Department. A highlevel meeting chaired by the

Education Minister on February 15 had decided to facilitate the admission of the

five HIV-infected students.

The MDLP school authorities were also directed to submit the applications for

TCs to DPI if there were any bulk requests.

This direction was given since the Asha Kiran authorities had expressed concern

that if the five HIV-infected children were admitted to the school, then there

would be strong opposition from the parents of other children who were already

studying in the school.

And it has been noticed that the decisions were not complied with. The expert

team, in its report, has said that the Asha Kiran authorities have not sent the

students to the school till date and they have engaged a teacher to coach the

students.

Meanwhile, the HM of MDLP school has said that the Asha Kiran authorities did

not bring the kids to the school this academic year.

However, she has reported to the expert team that the new kids took admissions

to the school only on the reopening day after learning that the HIV-affected

students were not present in the school. The HM said that the parents were still

against the HIVaffected students continuing their studies in the school.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEO20070610024838

--

S.Ajai Kumar

Programme Officer IEC

Kerala SACS

Red Cross Road, Thiruvananthapuram - 35

Kerala

e-mail: <ajai.ksacs@...>