Justice Chandru Panel moots bringing all schools under Tamil Nadu School Education dept, banning caste markers

CHENNAI: Taking a comprehensive look at addressing caste-based discrimination in Tamil Nadu schools and colleges, the one-man committee headed by retired Justice K Chandru put forth a slew of recommendations, including immediately bringing all schools under the School Education Department, removing "Kallar Reclamation" and "Adi Dravidar Welfare" prefixes from school names, granting permission to new schools only if they don’t have any caste mentioned in their names, etc.

The State government constituted the committee after a 17-year-old Dalit student and his sister were attacked by his classmates hailing from a dominant caste, in Nanguneri in August 2023. Chandru handed over the report of the committee’s findings to Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday.

The panel recommended immediately bringing all types of schools, including Kallar Reclamation schools (under Most Backward Classes Department), Adi Dravidar schools (Adi Dravidar Welfare Department) and Tribal Welfare schools (Tribal Welfare Department), under the unified control of the School Education Department (SED).

"Before bringing schools under the unified control of SED, the issues concerning the service conditions of teachers in the schools, including seniority, promotion, and pay fixation, should be resolved. For same, a committee of high-level government officers should be formed to finish these concerns within stipulated time," the report said.

Further, the report called for a regular transfer of high school and higher secondary school teachers, and recommended framing Annual Confidential Reports (ACR). "The ACR for officers and school heads must include a column to record their attitudes towards SC/ST, with appropriate procedures for maintaining these records," it added.

The report also recommended several measures to address the caste-based discrimination in schools and colleges, including ensuring that teachers and officials undergo compulsory orientation programme relating to social issues, revise teachers’ curriculum to ensure orientation towards inclusivity, and importantly, that students’ castes were kept confidential.

Teaching aspirants’ attitude towards social justice issues should be ascertained during appointment and teachers and staff in schools and colleges should undergo compulsory orientation programme relating to social issues, caste discrimination, the different laws pertaining to sexual violence, sexual harassment, drugs, ragging, and offences against SC/ST before the start of every academic year. Also, they must be informed of the consequences of violating those laws, the report highlighted.

The caste names of students should be kept confidential, and attendance register should not contain any column or details relating to their caste. "At no point can the class teacher call out students by either directly or indirectly referring to their caste, nor make any derogatory remarks about the student's caste or the so-called character attributed to the caste. And, make no announcement of scholarships by any student," the report stressed.

The report recommended the government to issue an administrative order directing the removal of "Kallar Reclamation" and "Adi Dravidar Welfare" as prefixes from school names, and instead refer to them only as government schools, followed by their place of location.

The conditions for permission to start a school must include a stipulation that its name shall not bear any caste appellation. In the case of existing private schools that have caste appellations, the department should request these schools to remove them. "If they fail to comply, appropriate legal steps should be considered, including legislative changes to serve the larger public interest, "the report stated.

Other recommendations include prohibiting wearing any coloured wristbands, rings, or forehead marks [that is identified with any caste or community], restriction of mobile phones by students in campus, conducting moral science classes for students between classes 6 and 12, appointment of trained counsellors and school welfare officer, and formation of Social Justice Students Force (SJSF).

It also sought a special legislation to enforce a policy of social inclusion and eradication of caste discrimination, enhance local bodies' control over primary education and amend the TN Societies Registration Act, 1975, to prevent caste appellations in the names of educational institutions.