Hiccups are continuing since I saw “Hichki”( “Hiccup” )the Bollywood saga about the harsh reality of the sharp divide between “have and have nots” in our society and in our schools.
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE Act) is being blatantly violated by private schools in our country. As per RTE Act, government should monitor whether a private school has earmarked 25 per cent of the seats for EWS students. Is that a good idea? Should be …because ideally the kind of education that our children get must not be based on the amount of money their parents have. The schools that are true to filling these quotas are not too sure too. Teachers talk about huge challenges in having kids from various economic statuses in one class . According to them and somewhere rightfully so they feel in big size classrooms … a lot of time gets wasted to handle issues which are specific to EWS kids. And the rest of class suffers. The have and have not divide stares us in the face in these classrooms. The debate why does government not invest in making government schools better instead of forcing private schools to follow the rule continues. We live in a society which runs on money…people who don’t have the money to travel look at people who travel …..who can travel look at people who can travel to foreign lands …. people who can travel in economy to foreign lands look towards people who are occupying the business class seats.
Ok that’s how our world works, we all work at different pace and our circumstances vary but education should not have economy and business class seats. Should it? Because when we work with children, it doesn’t matter what seat they are sitting on,when given equal opportunity …they can do similar wonders. Every experience I have ever had with EWS children has left me wondering….. what if our ESS ( economically strong children ) had the same hunger to learn like their counterparts. And these EWS children ….they can sing, paint, draw, do math , problem solve, debate and learn at similar speeds….that also without their moms and dads stimulating their brains at home and helping them with their homework. What they lack is their ability to express themselves in English. And what a big and a very sad roadblock is that in our country.
There are lots of Hichkis in my throat since yesterday. Watch the movie to see what I mean.
Was Rani Mukerjee( Protagonist of ” Hichki”, a very talented Bollywood actress) right in saying that we all have Tourette syndrome (TS), but ours is in our brains. A societal disorder which makes our brain to hiccup and forces us to be repetitive & stereotypical about judging people and childrens’ ability based on their economic statuses.
SAAKSHI SINGLA 
From Shalu Ahuja – An Awesome Teacher
Just picked my phone to watch ‘Hichki ‘ very very debatable issue. When we talk about equality then reservations should be totally
abolished . If talking about equal opportunities and education for all then why only 25% for Ews? Let all children residing in the vicinity of a school be rightfully given admission. Why have elite schools like Pathways ,etc… for the elitest of the elite . There is a huge gap between the upper class and the middle class which is so glaringly visible in the society. Believe me it is the middle class which knows where the shoe is pinching. Haves always had , middle class is crushed and Ews now have it on the platter. Seriously an issue which is so telling about what our education system is all about . The system stinks , leaks beyond repair.