Around two scores of Plus Two students were forced to walk barefoot on a hot tar road while they were returning from an examination centre here on Thursday.
This happened due to the "no footwear in examination hall" rule of the School Education Department.
The students from a private school in Anna Nagar were apparently told by their teachers not to walk into the examination centre in another school in K.K. Nagar with their footwear, since "footwear are not allowed" into examination halls for public examination.
However, when the boys and girls returned from the examination hall after 1.15 p.m., they were visibly hurt walking barefoot on the road under a a hot sun. While the boys managed the ordeal with a faster pace of walk, the girls were seen jumping and hurriedly searching for shade under the row of trees. Some of them could not stop screaming, unable bear the hot road surface.
When asked as to where their footwear were, a teacher, who had come to receive the students, said that "footwear was not allowed inside" pointing to the school (examination centre).
But the students of the K.K. Nagar school (examination centre), who followed these students, were seen walking out with chappals and sandals.
It looked like the other students had left their chappals in their vehicles. They had to walk for over 100 metres to the next street where their vehicles were parked. They also faced the risk of stepping on thorns or nails on the road.
When the issue was taken to the notice of Chief Educational Officer R. Swaminathan, he said that he would talk to the head of the school concerned to ensure safety for the students.
