Calcutta high court comes to dyslexic student’s rescue

Schools, listen up! If a student is frequently bunking classes, do not punish her/him. Rather, try to find the reasons for her/his absence and address issues, if any. You never know, the student could be suffering from depression or dyslexia.

In a wake-up call to educational institutions, the Calcutta high court (HC) has observed that schools should compulsorily employ or hire psychologists and counsellors to keep students in good mental health.

Hearing a petition by the guardians of a student of a reputed Kolkata school, justice Biswanath Samaddar observed, “Such psychologists or counsellors should be assigned the duty of examining the mental health of students at regular intervals and also do necessary counselling.”

The judge said such periodic counselling was necessary to relieve stress. “This would reduce the tendency of bunking classes, as attending school would become enjoyable for them [students],” he observed.

The guardians of Payel Sarkar, a dyslexic student of Fort William Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kolkata, moved HC after the school prevented her from sitting the CBSE class XII exam due to poor attendance.
They contended that the reason for her prolonged absence from school was that she had been suffering from mental depression.

However, the school’s counsel argued that medical examinations
at a later stage had failed to prove this. Payel’s counsel countered, saying since she had been cured, it was impossible to medically prove that she had been suffering from depression at one point.
After hearing out both sides, justice Samaddar ordered that Payel be allowed to take the examination and counsellors be appointed in all schools.

G Roy Chowdhury, a former teacher of Gokhale Memorial Girls High School, said the HC observation was appropriate, but appointing counsellors in all schools of West Bengal would be difficult.

“Many schools do not even have basic infrastructure. However, I feel at least the renowned schools can show the way by implementing the observation,” she said. (with agency inputs)