Updated on: Thursday, January 21, 2010
New Delhi: Taking note of several incidents of harassment of students by teachers across the country, the Central Board of Secondary Education has advised all its affiliated schools not to mistreat any child or parent in the name of enforcing discipline.
"No school under the guise of enforcing discipline should mistreat any student or parent thereof. This must be strictly observed and enforced notwithstanding any external pressure whatsoever," CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi has said in an advisory to the schools.
Observing that adolescents are vulnerable to many influences, the central education board has asked it’s over 10,000 affiliated schools to empower students to take informed decisions.
The advisory further states: "The schools need to be aware of the sensitive and impressionable nature of minds of school children and must ensure that all students, irrespective of their differences in physical, social, economic status or by their being differently abled are dealt with in a dignified manner."
Noting that schools are ideological institutions and not factories, CBSE said children must be treated as "sensitive individuals" who need to be protected at any cost.
Several incidents of harassment of students by teachers had been reported in the country.
In a recent case, Class XII student Himanshi Chaudhary committed suicide here after allegedly being humiliated by her teacher.