A lower primary school in Chennai has divided students into three batches to follow Covid-19 protocols allegedly on the basis of their caste. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has taken action against the school and directed the management to discontinue the practice immediately.
The school has been allegedly maintaining an attendance register of the students based on their caste. The school headmistress also said that it was unintentional and that the students, earlier also, had caste put against their name in the attendance register, reported news agency IANS. The headmistress said that maintaining the attendance register based on caste was only for administrative purposes and the students would not know the castes of their classmates.
“The issue is sorted out and the attendance register is corrected. It seems to have been unintentional as per an oral investigation,” Deputy Commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation D Sneha said in a statement. The attendance is now maintained in an alphabetical manner, the commissioner said adding that the Assistant Education Officers have been directed to check the attendance registers of all the schools under GCC.
The Director of Centre for Policy and Development Studies, C Rajeev told the news agency “This is shocking, how can the headmistress go scot-free after maintaining an attendance register on caste basis? While the government is trying to fizzle out the caste feeling among the people, teachers are intentionally injecting caste consciousness in minor children. Stringent action must be taken against those who have erred.”
As per a report by The Hindu, in 2019, several schools used coloured wristbands on students to identify their caste, claimed IAS officers of the 2018 batch. After which, the Director of School Education instructed the authorities to identify and take action against such schools that were identifying students using colour wristbands.