Mumbai: In order to provide an anonymous platform to students, parents, teachers and others working in the field of education to raise their grievances, an android application by the Mumbai-based Forum for Fairness in Education (FFE) was launched on Wednesday.
The graphical interface of the four-megabyte application named Forum for Fairness in Education India is simple and contains 20 categories, including infrastructure, parent-teacher associations, fee-related issues, admission, among other. The complainant can lodge complaint under these categories, which will then be forwarded to the concerned authority like a deputy director, an education officer or the education secretary. The app also has a feature to upload supporting images and videos with complaints.
There are no restrictions regarding the courses falling in the application’s ambit. For example, parents of a junior kindergarten kid can file a complaint for harassment, a student pursuing post-graduate course can also file a complaint for the grievance affecting him. If the complaint does not fall under any category, there is an “other” option in which a complaint can be framed on the person’s terms.
“The focus was on anonymity. In today’s times, parents and teachers are hesitant to come forward and speak up. The idea was to provide them a platform where they can freely voice their grievances and be assured of the fact that their voice will be heard by people in positions who can offer solutions. Urgent situations will be dealt with promptly and we will keep a daily check on the inflow of complaints,” said Jayant Jain, president of FFE.
The application will also be conducting surveys and raising awareness simultaneously about issues faced by the parents of children studying in educational institutions. At the end of every week, surveys will be compiled to generate reports which will then be presented to the concerned authorities. “A lot of parents are not aware of what they are entitled to under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 and what they must do when they are embroiled in a dispute with someone. We seek to address that problem with the app,” Jain added.
The forum will also not shy away from moving the court if the issue is not addressed satisfactorily. “Now we will have authentic evidence to produce in the court if it comes to that. Earlier, there used to be murmurs and nobody used to give anything in writing. This will provide an alternative,” he added.
Forum for Fairness in Education is an non-governmental organization working in the field of education since 1994.
[Source:-Mumbai Mirroor]
