Government school headmistress, teachers cry foul over admissions

BENGALURU: A state government-run school at Shivajinagar in the city is allegedly admitting students of only one particular community. And though the teachers have complained about it, no action has been taken so far by senior officials of the Primary and Secondary Education Department.The teachers have filed a complaint against a private charitable trust that has adopted the school. They allege that the trust is misusing its powers and admitting students of only one community.

The school headmistress said, “The school has been adopted by a trust named IMA Foundation and the adoption is only for infrastructure development. But they interfere in academic and administrative matters. They have even appointed their own principal and coordinator. They even decide on the admissions and 96 per cent of the students they have admitted belong to only one community.” The headmistress said she recently met the principal secretary to the Primary and Secondary Education Department and submitted a report.

According to the school teachers, the trust encourages students to offer prayers within the school premises. “Some students go out to pray,  but some do it in classrooms. We feel this creates differences between these students and those from other communities,” a teacher said.The charitable trust has also set up a pre-school on the same premises and also completed admissions for it. “The question is who gave them the right to do all this? The MoU signed with the department allows the trust to provide necessary infrastructure for the school,” another teacher said.

Director of Primary and Secondary Education Department Basavaraju said, “I have instructed the jurisdictional Deputy Director of Public Instruction to submit a report on this issue. Once we receive a report, we will initiate further action.” When The New Indian Express contacted IMA Foundation, they refused to comment on the issue.

Unpaid teachers seek mercy killing

Fourteen teachers of Fort High School in Chamarajpet, who were shifted to the Shivajinagar government school at the start of 2017-18 academic year when the Chamarajpet school was closed down, have written a letter to  state government seeking mercy killing. Speaking to  Express, the teachers said they have not received their salaries for the last six months and no one in the department is bothered. “Even  after several representations, none of the officials are bothered about our  lives. We have not been paid since six months and are struggling to lead our lives. So we have written a letter requesting mercy killing,” the teachers said. Their plight was highlighted in the Legislative Council on Friday by JD(S) MLC Puttanna during Zero Hour.