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Tamil Nadu: Schools to combat caste discrimination (and cell phones) in classrooms
New guidelines from the state education department are designed to curb marginalisation and discrimination based on ethnicity and caste. Strict confidentiality regarding caste affiliation is required, especially for scholarship recipients. For Fr Devasagaya Raj, Catholic schools should do more to promote the Gospel values of equality.
Delhi (AsiaNews) – The Tamil Nadu Department of School Education, in a circular issued last week, established new guidelines to curb ethnic and community-based discrimination in schools ahead of the upcoming school year.
Experts in the field say the lack of decisive action against teachers who promote caste ideologies or affinities or indulge in discriminatory practices ultimately damages the credibility of educational institutions and create tensions within them.
School principals have been instructed to maintain strict confidentiality regarding caste.
Details of students receiving scholarships from the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department or the Most Backward Classes Department should remain confidential, and any clarifications or inquiries should be made in protected environments such as the principal's office.
The circular also reiterated the need to maintain confidentiality regarding students’ caste identity, particularly scholarship details.
To ensure harmony in government schools, the Department of School Education’s circular directs school officials to promptly investigate complaints of caste-based bias by teachers and transfer them if the allegations are found to be true.
The move follows a meeting chaired by the chief secretary on the implementation of the Justice K Chandru Committee report in the last week of August.
The body, formed to recommend measures to curb caste discrimination, submitted its detailed report in June 2024.
Among the recommendations were the periodic transfer of high school and senior secondary school teachers and guidelines to prevent the posting of officials from locally dominant castes to a particular area.
Although these recommendations have not yet been fully implemented, the department has now issued a directive to officials to act swiftly on complaints of caste-based bias by teachers.
The circular also instructs teachers to ensure that students do not use mobile phones in schools. If students are found using the devices, they should be confiscated by teachers or principals and returned to their parents.
The circular also reiterated the need to maintain confidentiality regarding students' caste identity, especially those receiving scholarships.
Schools are also directed to implement the Magizh Mutram (house system) initiative to promote student unity, cooperation, and mutual aid, and submit details of its implementation to the general management.
Schools must also ensure that moral science classes are conducted effectively.
“In the first page of all the text books in Tamil Nadu it is printed ‘Untouchability is an inhuman act and a capital crime’,” notes Fr Z. Devasagaya Raj, former national secretary of the Dalits and Backward Classes (SC/BC) Commission of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI).
“The Tamil Nadu Government wants to educate students” against caste discrimination, but “It is sad that some of the teachers, for their selfish reasons, make use of their caste tag to achieve their end and they are even making use of students for this purpose.”
In fact, “In each area the presence of dominant caste teachers in big number makes this possible and this leads to division among the teachers and students.”
Uniforms or school attire ensure that students are alike in appearance, at least to avoid economic disparities. Dividing students into castes is much more dangerous and poisonous to the heart.
“Educational institutions should rise above all dividing walls and create a future society of students with human and Gospel values of equality and brotherhood and sisterhood," the Catholic leader said.
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