The School Education Department’s inquiry is on into an incident in which two students of the Panchayat Union Middle School at Periyur in Kodumudi Union were allowed to paint the school floor.
A video shot on March 8 by the former Vellottamparappu panchayat vice-president Shanmugam of AIADMK, shows two Class VII boys, painting the floor outside the classroom. He claimed that the students belonged to the SC community and that the headmistress, S. Dhanalakshmi, forced them to paint. Chief Educational Officer M. Ramakrishnan asked the District Educational Officer (DEO) to conduct an inquiry.
Mr. Shanmugam took up the issue with Malayampalayam police and reportedly wanted a probe to be initiated on community angle. But the boy’s parents gave a written statement that there was nothing wrong in students doing painting in the school as one of the boy’s father was a painter. They also said there was no disparity in the school.
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The DEO conducted inquiries with the headmistress who had said that the boys voluntarily took up the work. She also told the DEO that a helper was painting the floor and when she went for a break, the boys took up the work themselves. The DEO also held inquiries with the boys.
The boys told The Hindu that they did the work voluntarily as they used to draw on school walls. Their parents also rubbished the reports on communal angles. “My son said that he did painting in school. There is nothing wrong in it,“ said the boy’s mother.
Sources in the Education Department said though the boys did the work voluntarily, the headmistress should not have permitted them to do it during school hours. Chief Educational Officer M. Ramakrishnan said both the DEO and the police were probing the issue and after receiving the reports, a decision would be taken.
R. Ravichandran, president of the Parents-Teachers Association of the school, said that drawings on the school compound walls were done by the students all these years and blamed political intervention for the current problem.
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