Team Herald
MARGAO: The teachers of Sharada English High School, Sanvordem, have unanimously come out in support of the school headmistress. They also refuted the allegations levelled against her by the physical education teacher and accused him of fabricating the issue.
“We state that we have full faith in our headmistress and the allegation that the school headmistress has asked for bribe for Rs 6 lakh from a teacher has no standing. As also allegations that the headmistress or teachers have assaulted the students are false,” they stated in a joint statement.
The headmistress, teaching staff and administration have termed his allegations as “baseless, fabricated and output of a disturbed mind”.
“It is a fact that the teacher has concocted stories to mislead innocent students and parents to spoil the image of the school. If there were complaints of assault in the past one year, the complainants should have left the school in this academic year,” said the teachers.
They further stated that if there are any complaints, they will not hesitate to conduct an inquiry into the same. They continued, “Naughty students are issued stern warnings to mend their ways, but they are not given corporal punishment or embarrassed with abusive language. We are aware of our responsibilities and have never discriminated between the students on the basis of caste, creed or religion. Our prestigious school has been running for the last 60 years and has students belonging to all communities.”
“The uniforms and other equipment required by the students are made by the school management, and it has been clarified that the material has already been given to the lower classes this year, and hence, the contention that not even I-cards have been given to the students has no ground,” added the teachers.
They also spoke about how they visit the people in the vicinity to request them to send their children to Sharada School. They said, “We help the needy students by giving them free uniforms, books, shoes, etc, so they can avail educational facilities from our school, but no parent is pressured to send their children there.”
The school management further stated that they had not received complaints from any parent regarding the ill-treatment of their children, and that it was the PE teacher who had instigated some students to write complaints and thereafter approached the media with malicious intentions.
The management also questioned why they had not been approached directly if the complaints are genuine.
The school also claimed that a complaint against the PE teacher had been lodged at the Curchorem police station in September for abusing the management and troubling the headmistress’ husband on September 2. The management had personally reported the matter to the Director of Education, who advised them to initiate action as per the rules.
“The PE teacher picks up fights with the management, headmistress and staff, and the smooth functioning of the school is being hampered due to his distressing behaviour. Since the last many days, he has been creating problems regularly, due to which memos have been issued to him,” added the teachers.
They added, “He is always threatening the female teachers, clerks and peon with lawsuits. Whenever the administration issues him a notice, he not only rejects it, but also threatens them.”
The teachers have also demanded action against him for flouting the rules of education and general ethics and spoiling the image of the school and the teachers.
