TIRUNELVELI: State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN) organised a seminar on eradication of caste-based discrimination and atrocities in educational institutions on Sunday. They also sent suggestions to the one-man commission formed the state government headed by Justice K Chandru to study caste atrocities in educational institutions.
Addressing the seminar, general secretary of SPCSS-TN PB Prince Gajendra Babu said his organisation suggested various measures with the commission for preventing students from practising discriminatory practice and involving in activities of caste outfits. "We request the panel to hold a consultative meeting with activists on the measures to prevent caste elements from influencing the students. It should recommend to the government to define caste as a discriminatory social practice and ban its influence in the educational institutions in any form. In many cases, the teachers and administrators themselves are caste oriented," he said, adding that if the heads of the educational institutions are casteist, it will naturally influence the students.
Gajendra Babu said, "Students are led on the wrong path by the elders. Learning happens through observation and a wrong attitude of the people in control of educational institutions have an effect on students more than the syllabus. Sensitisation programmes should be held for the managers of educational institutions, heads and teachers." He also administered an oath to the staff of institutions for the creation of an egalitarian society.