Teacher’s remark sparks row; dismissed

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Tensions prevailed outside a private school, located at Chandra Layout, as hundreds of parents gathered outside the gates alleging that a teacher had made derogatory remarks against a community.

Initially it was alleged that one of the students of class 7 of Vidya Sagar Public English School, was asked by her teacher not to wear H ijab during the class. The agitating parents later accused the teacher of writing derogatory comments about the community on the blackboard.

“We have not come here to ask about the hijab issue,” a parent told News Trail. It was alleged that during the class, the teacher said that India has only 25% of Muslim population and that the girl students cannot wear the headscarves in the classroom anymore.

“The teacher wrote some initials on the blackboard issuing disrespectful comments about the community.,” he added. Meanwhile, jurisdictional police teams rushed to the spot to control the mob.

School denies charge

However the school management claimed that the matter has been highly misunderstood. “The teacher spoke about the High Court’s interim order which restrained the students from wearing religious symbols inside the classroom. The writings on the black board are also incorrectly interpreted,” the school authorities claimed.

Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI), Bengaluru South, S. Rajendra visited the school and heard both sides of the argument. “The teacher, Shashikala, claimed that during the class, she asked the students to keep silent. When some students still continued to disturb, she wrote the initials of their names to punish them later,” S Rajendra told the media. “The teacher has been dismissed,” he added.