COIMBATORE: The headmaster of Government Higher Secondary School at Kangeyamapalayam has been blamed for assaulting a Scheduled Caste postgraduate teacher during exam duty. The latter also allegedly used casteist slurs, states a petition submitted to the School Education Department Director, demanding departmental action
The complainant teacher, M Govindraj, is from the Government Higher Secondary School in Kallapalayam, on the outskirts of Coimbatore city.
The alleged incident happened on Monday at the exam centre at the Government Higher Secondary School at Vagrayampalayam where Govindraj met the superintendent, who happened to be the headmaster of Kangeyampalayam school.
Govindraj, who teaches Economics, told TNIE that he was appointed as a route officer for the Class 12 board examination duty and had arrived at exam centre with question papers.
"I reached the centre at 7.55 am. I submitted the question papers to the departmental officer at 7.57 am. After that, the department officer called the superintendent, who is the headmaster of Kangeyampalayam School. He arrived at the centre at 8.10 am but noted the time as 8 am when he received the question papers. I told him to mention the correct time," he said.
"The enraged headmaster spoke disrespectfully, and I reacted. He suddenly assaulted me using my caste name. After completing my work, I went to the Karumathampatti primary health centre for first aid. Later, I lodged a complaint with the Karumathampatti police, who registered a case against him under four sections of the BNS and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015," he said.
Govindraj alleged that although a case has been registered against the headmaster, educational officers in Coimbatore have remained silent without taking departmental action.
He said that since the officers appear to favour the headmaster, he has petitioned the top officers of the school education department seeking departmental action against him.
When contacted, Chief Educational Officer R Balamurali told TNIE that he has issued show-cause notices to both the teacher and the headmaster, and an inquiry is underway.
Repeated attempts to reach the top officers of the school education department went in vain.