200 px (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
SUMEGHA GULATI, Finacial Express
Posted: Wednesday, Jul 25, 2012 at 0303 hrs IST
Tags: Unique Identification Authority Of India | Aadhaar Scheme |Sangam Vihar | Khanpur
New Delhi: The students of a municipal school in South Delhi have been shifted out of their classrooms, into the corridors, as the officials of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) have set up base at the school to implement the Aadhaar scheme.
Since May 6, more than 500 students of Class III at the MCD primary school in Sangam Vihar, near Khanpur, have been attending classes in the corridors or the open ground, after a section of the school was converted into a temporary centre for Aadhaar.
According to officials, the Aadhaar team moved into the school during the summer break and is scheduled to use the classrooms till September.
“The principal who is in charge of the school during vacations gave permission to UIDAI. We have provided them three rooms, but students have stopped using the other classrooms in that section owing to the noise and crowd of visitors,” said Birbal Meena, school’s principal.
Teachers at the school said the UIDAI project has disrupted the classes and led to “indiscipline” among students.
“The children have to sit on the dirty floors in this extremely hot, humid weather. There is chaos (of visitors), which distracts students. And how can we teach children of this age group without the help of blackboards?” a teacher said.
Gungun, a student of Class III, who sat with her back to the wall in the a corridor outside the principal’s office, said her classroom was a pucca room earlier. “For the past two weeks, we sit here. There is no blackboard. Our class has been split up — some of us study here, while some sit in Class II,” said Gungun, balancing her notebook on her lap.
More than 2,200 students attend the school, which is from nursery till Class V. There are 32 classrooms.
Directorate of School Education Amit Singhla said the vast network made schools an “ideal choice” for the Aadhaar scheme.
“We had planned that only those schools that have extra classrooms would be used during vacations. I cannot comment on this case as MCD does not fall under our jurisdiction,” he said.
South corporation’s Education department said UIDAI was a task of national importance.
“We have passed orders that such camps should run only during holidays. But this task involves the Election Commission, our teachers fear action if UIDAI is denied rooms,” said an Education official of South corporation.
(Inputs from Pragya Kaushika)
Related articles
- Apple, as per UIDAI is resident of India given #aadhar Number #WTFnews (kractivist.wordpress.com)
- Aadhaar’ is Reaching India’s Poor, but at What Price? (kractivist.wordpress.com)
- India- Experiments with Aadhaar #UID #Nandan Nilekani (kractivist.wordpress.com)
- Aadhaar Round-Up: UID Vs Resident ID; UID In Jharkhand and Delhi & More (kractivist.wordpress.com)
- A tale of errors #UID #AADHAR #Nandan Nilekani (kractivist.wordpress.com)
- Seven booked in Aadhaar fraud #UID #Nandan Nilekani (kractivist.wordpress.com)
kracktivist 
Jul 29, 2012 @ 10:23:09
I wish these authorities do this to schools like Modern School, Delhi Public Schools where their children study. Why they should not be proceeded against under denial of right of education and child rights. Our policy makers, enforcers and the decision making authorities do not want these poor childern of lesser God to study, start thinking about their betterment and root causes of their backwardness. UNFORTUNATE!
Aug 05, 2012 @ 22:51:11
Well all I can say about this is that it really shows the ugly approach of the officials for neglecting the study of the children for the sake of their Aadhaar number. This is really ridiculous.