Names of students with caste in register lands Salem government school in trouble

Adjacent to the name of students listed in an alphabetical order, their caste such as BC, MBC, SC, ST has been mentioned in different colours in the daily attendance register.

Around 2,500 students are studying from Class 6 to 12 in the school at Narasingapuram area. The issue came to light after a photocopy of the register was sent by the school in WhatApp to parents of students for them to know the students’ enrollment number. As it began to become viral in the social media, the school administration maintained that the caste of students was mentioned only to identify the beneficiaries to issue scholarships, laptops and cycles.

“It was sent by mistake to students. The school does not discriminate against students on the basis of caste,” said headmaster Ponmudi. The officials of the education department are likely to probe the issue for any action.

Only last month, a Corporation school in Chennai was pulled up for grouping students on the basis of caste to conduct separate classes.