MULBAGAL: A government school headmistress in Kolar district, who reportedly allowed Muslim students to perform Friday namaz (prayers) on campus in order to ensure they don't miss classes and don't contract Covid-19 by stepping out, has been placed under suspension.
The incident took place at Bale Changappa Government Higher Primary School, located on Bengaluru-Chittoor highway, and the headmistress is Uma Devi. The school has around 400 students and 165 of them belong to the Muslim community.
The school authorities recently decided to allow students to perform Friday prayers on campus for three reasons: One, students who were going out for prayers weren't returning to school, therefore losing out on in-class lessons. Two, allowing them to go out increased the probability of them contracting Covid-19 and passing the infection to other students. Three, to avoid accidents as students would have to cross the busy national highway to reach the nearest mosque.
However, the move didn't go down well with all. On January 21, a few mischief mongers shot a video of students offering prayers in school and circulated it on social media. Soon, Hindu activists demanded action against the headmistress, saying she had violated rules. Apart from staging demonstrations, they submitted a representation to the deputy commissioner, who ordered a probe into the allegations.
Inquiry conducted
Deputy director of public instruction (Kolar), Revanasidappa, who conducted an inquiry, said the headmistress initially said she hadn't permitted students to offer prayers in school, but later justified her action saying she allowed it to prevent them from crossing the national highway to go to the mosque and also because many of them weren't returning to school for the afternoon sessions. The headmistress said she feared that those stepping out of campus could get infected, especially with increasing Covid-19 cases in Mulbagal.
Girijeswari Devi, block education officer (Mulbagal), said students of classes 6 to 8 offered namaz in school. The BEO said the headmistress maintained she was only acting in the interest of students and did not have any mala fide intent in allowing a section of them to perform prayers.
However, she has been placed under suspension for now.
