Awareness About POCSO Will Be Included In School Curriculum Starting From 2024-2025: SCERT Informs Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court was considering a bail application when Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas noted the increasingly high rate of sexual offences against children, especially amongst teenagers. The Court took note of the fact that school going and teenage students often get into consensual sexual relations with each other, unaware of the severe consequences under the POCSO Act. The Court noted that this is because the children do not have any awareness about the legal provisions under the POCSO Act.

In this regard, the Court invoked its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to implead State of Kerala, the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Kerala State Legal Services Authority and directed them to take steps to include POCSO in the school curriculum for making students aware against sexual offences and its ramifications.

When the matter was taken up, the counsel appearing for SCERT, Advocate P C Sasidharan informed the Court that SCERT will include awareness about POCSO in their curriculum and textbooks will be prepared by experts considering the sensitivity of the matter. For students of standards I, III, V, VI, VIII and IX, POCSO awareness will be included in their curriculum from the academic year 2024-25. For students of standards II, IV, VII and X, POCSO awareness will be implemented from the academic year 2025-2026. The counsel also submitted before the Court that workshops will be conducted for the teachers regarding the revised curriculum.

Justice Thomas noted that many years have passed since the POCSO Act have come into force. The Court expressed that we were 12 years late in taking any steps to include awareness about sexual offences in the school curriculum and now this has turned out to be a necessity, the Court stated.

The Court while applauding the efforts taken by the SCERT in taking steps for including POCSO awareness in the school curriculum orally remarked that “Kerala could be the first state to do this”.

Advocate T P Hood, counsel for the state government, submitted that one day training was imparted to teachers regarding POCSO awareness programme during May 2023. Counsel submitted that around 1,12,000 teachers attended the training held at various venues in the State.

The counsel appearing for KELSA, Advocate Parvathy Menon submitted before the Court that under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, Higher Secondary teachers have also been given orientation session regarding POCSO awareness through KELSA.

The Court is awaiting response from Central Board of Secondary Education in this regard and the matter will be taken up on September 09.