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I was shocked to read a report today about how a school in Ahmedabad was insisting that children be of a certain height and weight to qualify for admissions.
The Maharaja Agrasen School has set specific physical criteria for admission into Junior Kinder Garten - a minimum height of 95 cm for a three-and-half-year-old and a weight of between 15-20 kg. Thankfully, an NGO, Jagega Gujarat, has filed a Public Interest Litigation against the malpractice. The NGO has argued that children having less height and weight are not necessarily deficient in mental capability.
Indeed, children are of different heights and weights, and the basis of it is their birth weight (genetic factors) and eating patterns. Nowhere has it been proved that a child who is either not tall enough or physically healthy enough for his age is less intelligent. Such theories are ridiculous and dowright unfair to the child. Now, are parents going to have a new worry on their minds when trying to admit their child in school? Already, they are grappling with the issue of reduced age for admissions as specified in some states. Then, there is always a reserved quota for school trustees, which further reduces their chances.
My own children are twins and being premature (as twins normally are), they are of lesser weight than their age contemporaries. And one twin is taller than the other. He has probably taken after his tall father while the other has clearly taken after not-so-tall me. But they are intelligent and smart, and those two qualities certainly cannot be rated on the basis of the two former qualities. It would be very unfair if these criteria form the basis of their admission.
It is especially sad that such a thing should happen when we are all aware of the good efforts being made by many organisations to bring more and more lesser privileged children under the umbrella of education. Can poor children, who are not fed well, have the required weight and height? And do we thus further ruin their chances of having a go at education, the stepping stone to progress in life?
Tall should not be a measure of the child's physical height but of their intelligence, wisdom and capacity for love. The need of the hour is to appreciate the innate goodness and divinity in our children and to steer them back on the right path if they go astray. Don't judge them by using your jaded and cynical standards, let them show you the way. They are more often than not, already on the right path...is it any wonder that people say, bachche bhagwan ka roop hote hain?
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