This Bihar School divides students on the basis of caste system
A school is a place for enlightenment and education. However, what will children learn if the adults themselves won’t follow to be enlightened themselves? Children are expected to follow by example. Despite all claims of “India Shining” and promotion of a technologically advanced nation, sadly the mindset of some citizens has still remained in the Dark Ages. In the GA High School in Lalganj, a government school, children are apparently made to sit according to their caste. And what more shocking is, that it’s not a new phenomenon; this has been going over four years now!
Students’ attendance is taken on the basis of caste!
The truth came to light after a female student complained to the Lalganj Block Education Officer, Arvind Kumar Tiwari, that such kind of caste-based segregation was a ‘violation of fundamental rights.’ Though the Lalganj Block Education Officer denied the claims and said that no such report has been heard of, the students of the school had an entirely different story to tell.
This practice has been pronounced more in the higher classes, where the children are at a very impressionable age. According to the well-known newspaper Indian Express, over 1500 students are apparently made to sit in this caste segregated manner. Attendance is also apparently taken in this way, where the caste of each student is mentioned beside the roll number.
Only a system for making reports, the Principal claims!
The school principal, Meena Kumari, however, has defended her system. According to her, this system was started by the predecessor Phool Mohammed Ansari and was only used as a technical method to identify students who are benefited under several government schemes and prepare the reports. It was apparently only a procedure to help make reports and serve students better.
However, no matter what the real reason was, a school cannot be allowed to divide students on the basis of their caste. A school is a place where the mind will learn without any inhibition or boundaries and caste segregated systems of any kind is a big boundary which will create harmful mindsets.