Instruction: Fill & Download for Free

There is another premises of the same school, where we have kids studying from 1st to 10th grade.This one, where my daughter studies, just has kindergarten and playgroup with daycare.The other school ends around 1.30 in the afternoon.Once I was early to pick up daughter when I noticed her first.Sat in her uniform, she chewed on a pencil end staring aimlessly at the wall. She seemed around 6 years old.“Who's she?” I asked the security guard. He is someone with whom I have an occasional chat sometimes. He looked over at where I was pointing and shrugged his shoulders.“That's one sad kid madam.” He said. Meanwhile my daughter made an entrance from the daycare area so I lifted her up and signed the register.I saw the guard give her a Parle G biscuit and she had it without any expression on her face.When I saw her again a few days later I asked why is she sitting here and not in the daycare upstairs.“Because she isn't a daycare child.” He said. “She studies in the other premises. Her school is over at 1.30 but she waits for her parents to to pick her up. But she knows it's futile. She then makes her way to the principals office who then instructs a bus to drop her here because they have to close up the gate and then she waits again. The mother or the father makes an appearance around 6 and pick her up as if nothing happened. But this happens almost every other day.”“But why don't they enroll her in the daycare if they can't come on time?”“Wonders the principal too.” He said. “They outright said no. At first I would give her a lunch from the daycare food we have. But after this has been going for months, even the principal is losing her mind.”“So thats it. She just sits here for almost 5 hours?”“Yes. I sometimes give her something to eat from my pocket. But well, I also can't do much.”I am shattered to the core. I go and sit beside her to talk to her but she isn't interested.Can you imagine sitting in one spot, without proper lunch waiting for parents to come?Almost everyday?Is this the price to pay for being poor? I wondered. Could I be of any help? I thought and made a decision to speak to the head if I could help in a monetary way so that she could get a proper care for those 4–5 hours she sits aimlessly staring at a wall.I have just made up my mind when I get a shock of my life. The mother comes in just then, dressed in a crisp business suit and just says, ‘let's go' to the child who meekly gets up and follows her mother.They go out and I see them getting inside a swanky car and my bubble bursted.I looked at the guard who smiled at me.“They are not poor. They are just bad parents. I am sorry I shouldn't talk like that but they are. Hell, even I, with my meagre salary don't do this to my children.” He said shaking his head in exasperation.I stood there, for what seemed for a long time, till daughter came behind me and hugged me saying, “I love you”.I have a bad feeling about how that little innocent, pencil-chewing kid is going to turn out.

My second child, a big bouncing baby boy, was a tough delivery. Born 2 weeks early and very blue, umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, looped between his legs, wrapped around one arm. Still, he weighed 7 lbs 12 oz. and I often wonder what would he have weighed if my doctor had not induced labor. It was the summer of '88 and the temperatures in the kitchens where I worked often reached 110 degrees.I had worked 55+ hours per week up to the day I gave birth, I was certain it was my fault. I had no insurance, and 6 yr old at home, and a baby on the way, and a man who said "it's not mine".He spent the first week in Neonatal Intensive Care. His first year he was so ill, in and out of hospitals, pneumonia, vague respiratory problems. When his teeth came in, (early again at 2 months) they were missing a half moon from the high dosages of antibiotics he had needed in those first months. I breast fed him and followed all the pediatricians instructions and at 2 months he weighed 23 lbs, at 3 months he was 30 lbs., a weight he maintained for the next 2 yrs.In spite of his size, his development was slow, he was slow to sit up, slow to walk, to talk. The doctors didn't seem worried and neither did I, after all his brother did everything for him, so I assumed it was a side effect of younger-older sibling bonding.True enough, when he did sit up, walk and then talk, it was like a race horse being let out of the gate for the race. Any worries I had dissipated for a while. I was amazed often at how brilliant he sometimes seemed, even if it was often dangerous. He was a tiny little escape artist, fearless and climbed everything. The problem was he was very good at getting away from you, it only takes a second. He was found wandering the neighborhood after having escaped the babysitter's watchful eye, twice before he was out of diapers.As he grew, all the unusual behaviors, I chalked up to the difference in children, he was an individual with his own traits and a child, his thoughts were just, well, his own. He cried a lot, but just as quickly could smile at the site of his "LaLa lady", a statue of an 18th century lady in pink that played some pretty tune when you wound her up. He had worked hard to retrieve her from a shelf where she had resided for 15 yrs quite well until he decided she was his toy. LaLaLady stayed with him for the next 8 yrs. slowly deteriorating until she no longer played for him. The day she stopped was devastating for him.When he was 3 I learned that be very careful what you do! We were outside once, and he needed to pee during potty training and there wasn't a bathroom in site. Being a modern "Mom", I took him behind a tree and had him pee on it. I spent the next 2 yrs trying to break him of going outside to pee on a tree in the backyard. Poop = toilet, pee = tree.There were dozens of things like that. The concept of humor, what was funny and why something was funny fascinated him and he was always trying to make up new jokes. Trouble was that none of them were funny or even made sense, this fixation has never disappeared.He always had a smile that lit up his entire face. His eyes sparkled, his smile was so bright! It was the one thing that never changed from a baby to the day he ran away from home.Then came school. Remember, I believed I had a normal, and in some ways a very bright little boy. He was and is bright, but he wasn't normal. Within weeks, I was receiving notices almost daily about inappropriate behavior in the bathroom. He was trying to fondle the other boys. Before the first semester was over, he was forbidden to go to the bathroom with any of the other children or to play unsupervised with them.This became the norm. I took him to a child psychologist, convinced he had been molested or that he had suffered some trauma that he just couldn't tell me about.During that time period, I broke my leg, severely, requiring 10 months of help and physical therapy, when I returned to work, he:1. Skipped school for 3 days as a second grade student, (impressive on how he got away with it).2. Locked me out of my own home, while still on crutches, until I wet myself.3. Stole cash from my purse and bought friends a ton of candy and other garbage, $800 worth of friendship.No, says the therapist, he's just acting out because he craves my attention more, so I enrolled him in little league and after 4 practices and 2 games where my son called the ref and all the other players names, foul filthy names.Like something out of control he sexually assaulted a 4th grade girl on the playground in front of attendants.The girl's parents were threatening lawsuits or legal action unless I did "something" about my son. I committed him to a local mental health facility for a 10 day observation stint. They labeled him ADHD and sent him home. It was a diagnosis I didn't agree with, and it turned out I was right, but that was a hellish battle, too.A return to school and to work, that was short lived for both of us. I worked for the local judicial system, and finally cornered the Head of Juvenile Probation and begged for help before my son did real damage to some poor girl. The previous assault was minor (if there is such a thing), but I was well and truly terrified of and for my 7 yr old child.They set up a case for us, as I was now completely broke. The mental health cost, were astronomical after insurance stops paying. The courts helped and provided therapy for both of us. Still he, struggled and acted out, and I was losing the battle. The hardest words I have ever uttered were, "Your honor, I need help, I am no longer an effective parent to this child."My son spent the next 22 months in a juvenile psychiatric facility, being the youngest child there.Several diagnosis's later, I was allowed to bring him home for good. We had a new therapist, a kind patient woman, who diagnosed him with Asperger's Syndrome, a part of the autism spectrum. New meds were given, and the start of weekly therapy sessions that lasted until his 18th birthday were begun.The meds made him sick and lethargic, and at other times hyperactive and irritable. The meds also made him gain weight, a lot of it.He returned to school, struggling just as much as before but without the sexual aspect and I worked more than ever. The bills were huge, in spite of the insurance I had finally managed to acquire. He was a bright child that refused to do any form of school work. He understood some of it, and refused to ask questions when he didn't. He just wasn't interested.Leftover health problems from my life before he was born suddenly became prevalent, (it couldn't be that I was wore out like a candle burnt at both ends), anyway I was declared disabled and was now at home full time.I really thought this was a good thing. He was 12 now and there was always a positive moment, every day between us.He learned to cook with my help. He likes to cook and is reasonably good at it. He spent 5 yrs wanting to be a "Japanese Sushi Chef", even trying to learn Japanese in High School.He graduated high school, it was a hard road, but he did it and had grades decent enough to get into the local Ivy Tech with grants.That did not go as well for him, and he dropped out, but still he smiled every day. Again that smile was so bright.By 22 he had been fired from 6 different jobs, for making sexually inappropriate jokes or comments but had finally gotten a full time position as a clerk at the nearby convenience store. He also had a girlfriend whom had been a part of his narrow circle of friends for 4 yrs.Imagine my surprise when he announced that he was transgender."What about X?" I asked.The look of shock of on her face was clear when he announced that he still planned to marry her.The girlfriend, wasn't really a girlfriend, but he did not know that and was devastated when he learned the truth. They had never even exchanged a kiss.He had never so much as talked with her about romance and yet had planned to marry her. There were never any displays of affection that were usual in young adults, but in his mind it was everything, she was everything.A few months later, now starting to dress differently, my new daughter announced a friend from NY was coming to visit, someone she had met on the internet. Another transgendered individual arrived, in the process of going from male to female and I thought this was a good thing. My child will have someone to help him / her go through this process.Two days later my son, now daughter left and I haven't seen her since except for 2 hrs at one Christmas 2 yrs ago.We have occasional contact, but she is angry and hostile towards me, blaming for every aspect of her life, yet refusing to actually talk about any specific topic. When we do talk, her sex life is all she wants to talk about. She is explicit in her details and seems bent on "shocking" me with some new sex thing (asexual, pansexual, infantilism, cutting, s&m, even prostitution). She has kept contact with other family members, but again, sex is the hot topic and shock seems to be the goal. She has waffled back and forth with tirades about how we don't accept her, not true at all, but we can not convince her that we do accept and love her unconditionally.She now denies ever having wanted to be a Japanese Sushi Chef, says that I threw her away and never called or visited. Wow, knife to the heart right there, and not true - his absence was physically painful, I still cry to think of how much I missed him in my arms, how silent the house was, my oldest was a teenager and busy doing teenager things, and coming home was something I dreaded as my youngest was not there. We were incomplete without him.I don't deny having a few concerns, but not for the reasons everyone seems to think. I am concerned because after all I went through and how much I wanted and tried to understand, I was unaware of how much she lives inside her own thoughts, lost and locked in there, with non reality, having conversations with real people that only occur in her head and holding grudges based on those conversations. I am concerned because she is not mentally well or stable and right now every sentence is suspect. She a notorious liar, by her own words. I could care less whether he is a he or a she, I just want her to be stable and happy and right now she is neither.The last I've heard is that she is in San Jose. It's been 4 yrs and there is nothing I can do about any of it and the pictures I get haven't contained a smile in years.To date, I still don't really know what is wrong with my child, but it doesn't change how hard it was and still is to be a parent to a disabled child.Sorry so long winded, there was so much more, but there it is and thank you for getting this far.

Education in the Indian constitution is a concurrent issue and both centre and states can legislate on the issue.Article 21A of the Constitution makes it obligatory on the State to provide free and compulsory education to children between the age of 6 and 14 years. This is enforceable in court since it is part of the Fundamental Rights.In order to give effect to this right, the Parliament enacted the Right ofChildren to Free and Compulsory Education Act in 2009. The Act lays down the minimum norms that schools have to follow, mainly related to pupil-teacher ratio, buildings and infrastructure, school working days and teacher qualifications.It's been nine t years since the Right To Education Act, 2009, came into force. The Act has been touted to be a landmark legislation that seeks to realise the fundamental right to education for all children in the age group of 6-14 years. Still, many think of it as an ill-drafted and poorly implemented legislation.Many schools in country still suffer from lack of adequate drinking water facilities, playgrounds or the necessary infrastructure prescribed by the Act. There still exists cases of corporal punishment which has been banned by RTE. The learning outcomes which are the indicators of quality of classroom instruction have been found to be badly low.49% cases on the RTE Act have dealt with questions of access to education in various courts. The reasons for this may be denial of admission, fixing age-limits for admission to a particular class, transfer of students from one school to another, and conducting screening tests at the time of admission. Other issues included the applicability of the RTE Act to minority schools, applicability of the no-detention policy to private schools, and the definition of ‘neighbourhood’ for admission into ‘neighbourhood schools’On 7 May 2014, The Supreme Court of India ruled that Right to Education Act is not applicable to Minority institutions.The implementation of constitutional amendment and Right to Education Act 2009 is still sluggish and not all the children are in schools. The DISE (District Information on School Education) data is a surprising report, which reveals that the progress of elementary education is dubious and there is something inherently wrong in the enrolment of children. The ‘Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act’ seems a far dream for all the children of this country.Based on the 2011 Census figures, there were 233583108 children from age 6 to 14 in India. However, from the total enrolment figures for 2011-2012, only 199,055,138 students were enrolled in schools (this includes enrolment in unrecognised schools and madrasas). This means that over 34.5 million children covered by the RTE Act were not enrolled in school.From the DISE data 2013-14, it is evident that the enrolment in elementary schools (1 to 8) during 2013-14 decreased.During the year 2012-13 there were 134,784,272 children studying in primary classes (1 to 5) which reduced to 132,428440 children during 2013-14. Thus 2355832 children got reduced at lower primary level.Similarly at upper primary level (grade 6 to 8) there were 64926077 children during 2012-13 which increased to 66471219 during 2013-14.Hence the total number of students in elementary schools reduced from 199710349 (2012-13) to 198899659 during 2013-14. Thus the total number of students declined is 810690 during the academic year 2013-14. This is a substantial number.Despite the fact that RTE Act makes certain norms and standards to be followed by private schools in terms of infrastructure, teachers and school governance, it is hardly being followed and private schools are increasing in numbers. Also government schools have vacant positions of teachers, poor governance and deployment of teachers in non-teaching activities. This has resulted in govt. schools being less attractive to parents, and a rush to enrol in private schools.The DISE data (2013–2014) shows the number of unrecognised schools is increasing despite the provision of enforcement of RTE Act 2009, which bans the unrecognised schools. As a matter of fact, unrecognised schools have not been served any notice to become adherent to RTE norms.It is still unclear if all unaided private schools and some specified government schools are prohibited from conducting admission tests/interviews, as a recent MHRD order significantly weakens this ban.Further, many private schools continue to charge donations from children, despite it being illegal under the RTE Act.