At St Teresa’s lower primary school in Ernakulam, Kerala, one of the teachers has written the student strength according to their caste categories on the school blackboard and the photograph is revolving all around on social media.
The students of class 3 with a strength of 56 have been grouped based on their caste and religion including– SC (scheduled caste), OEC (Other Eligible Communities), OBC (other backward communities), General —and also, Hindu, Muslim and Christian.
The photograph was posted by a journalist on social media on Tuesday, January 7.
A complaint had been made against the teacher with higher authorities at the school. Later, a journalist removed the post after the teacher apologised as it might pose a threat to the teacher’s job as enquiry is still going at the school.
“For official purposes, they ask for students’ details many times over the year. So, to avail the data on my off days as well, I wrote that on the board. This was done only in my class room. It was not intended to discriminate or harass students. I apologise for my mistake”, the teacher wrote in her apology letter.
Activist and actor Jolly Chirayath reacted on the post and she commented “Though children are not bothered about caste, school authorities and teacher are bothered. In the era of computerisation, why do they need the data again and again when it’s stored once. Even if computers are not there, they could have written it in a register.”
Many slammed the school on the post and one said, “The data will be available in all school offices. Then what is the use of displaying it in classroom.”
