‘Weak’ students weeded out?

Four students of Dr. V. Genguswamy Naidu Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Othakalmandapam had a strange grievance to present before the District Collector in Coimbatore on Monday.

They submitted a petition during the grievances redress meeting stating that the school had asked them to fill an application to appear for the Standard X examination privately.

R. Rajesh Kumar, P. Rajesh, R. Boopathy Raja, and S. Sabari Gowtham, Standard X students of the school, along with a few others were given an application by the class teacher asking them to submit the application along with a Demand Draft of Rs. 150 at the Office of the District Educational Officer (DEO).

“Seven of us were told to do so without the knowledge of our parents. We did not know the contents of the form. Only when we went to submit the form at the DEO office, did we know it was an application to write the Standard X privately. We informed our parents who tried to meet the school authorities, but in vain,” one of the students said.

The students received the application for the examination from the school on July 12. After failed attempts, the parents had approached the Coimbatore Wing of The International Human Rights Federation. With the help of the federation, the students petitioned the District Collector on Monday.

The students alleged that this move was because the school feared that it would not get centum pass if some weak students were allowed to write as bona fide students of the school.

They said that this practise was in vogue for a long time.

“Even now, though there are others, but only four of us have approached the Collector for intervention,” a student said.

They also add that there are some weaker students who have not been asked to apply the examination in private. Principal of the school Akila Viswanathan, however, denied the allegations and said that students were not made to fill out applications for writing examinations privately, but were warned of such consequences to make them study better.

Students also submitted a petition to the Inspector of Matriculation Schools urging action against the school so that they were “spared from physical and mental torture during the time they studied in school.”