Kolkata:
The Right to Education Act says 25 per cent of seats at the nursery level in all private schools should be reserved for children from economically weaker sections.
While many school principals are opposing this, inclusive education is a reality at Sister Cyril's Loreto Sealdah School in Kolkata, where half the students are daughters of lawyers, doctors and businessmen and the other half either orphans taken off the streets of the city or daughters of domestic helps, electricians and jobless parents.
The class is good mix of the very rich and the very poor, all studying under the same roof without any distinction between the two classes. That's how it has been at this school for a decade, much before the Right to Education Act came into being.
"We maintain a very high academic standard so there is no loss from the academic side. And parents over the years are realising how much more well educated our children are because they know how to relate to anyone in society," emphasised Sister Cyril, Principal, Loreto Sealdah.
The experiment began 30 years ago with a handful of disadvantaged children.
Today, of its 1300-odd students, only 382 pay full fees. The rest either have sponsors or pay what they can. Some don't pay at all.
"Economic differences don't really matter. We don't really think about all these things. We are friends, we are classmates, we study together and we take education together. So these things don't really matter to us," said Mouli Sarkar, student, Loreto Sealdah.
Sister Cyril wants quality education for all, not separate schools for poor children.
"When they are kept separately like that they will not get first class treatment that they so deserve," said the Principal.
Her efforts have earned Sister Cyril a Padma Shri and great admiration but only a handful of hesitant followers. But she believes that as soon as principals and parents overcome their fear of the poor, inclusive education will no longer remain a slogan.