CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday asked the Chief Secretary of the Tamil Nadu government to initiate appropriate action to remove community/caste names from the names of government schools across the State. A division bench comprising Justices S M Subramaniam and C Kumarappan was passing further interim orders on proceedings initiated on its own, pursuant to the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy that claimed nearly 65 lives.
The bench said it was brought to its notice that government schools were functioning in that locality (Kalvarayan hills) in the name of “Government Tribal Residential School”. The usage of the term ‘Tribal’ along with the name of the Government School was unwarranted.
Such usage in a school’s name, undoubtedly would result in stigmatising the children studying there. They will get the feeling that they were studying in a “Tribal School” and not in an institution on par with the other children in nearby localities, the bench added.
The bench said stigmatisation of children at no circumstances be approved by the Courts and the government. Wherever such names were used indicating a particular community/caste, they were to be removed and the institutions must be named as “Government School” and children residing in that locality must be granted admission there to pursue their education, the bench added.
The bench said this Court would ask a question. If the Government School was named as “Tribal School”, then what would be the impact in the society? It was painful that even in the 21st century the Government was allowing to use such words in its run schools, functioning from and out of public money, the bench added.
The bench said Tamil Nadu, being a forerunner state in social justice, cannot allow such stigmatic words to be added as ‘prefixes’ or ‘suffixes’ in the name of the Government Schools or any Government institutions. In this regard, the Chief Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu has to initiate appropriate action, the bench added.
The bench said it was brought to its notice that government schools were functioning in that locality (Kalvarayan hills) in the name of “Government Tribal Residential School”. The usage of the term ‘Tribal’ along with the name of the Government School was unwarranted.
Such usage in a school’s name, undoubtedly would result in stigmatising the children studying there. They will get the feeling that they were studying in a “Tribal School” and not in an institution on par with the other children in nearby localities, the bench added.
The bench said stigmatisation of children at no circumstances be approved by the Courts and the government. Wherever such names were used indicating a particular community/caste, they were to be removed and the institutions must be named as “Government School” and children residing in that locality must be granted admission there to pursue their education, the bench added.
The bench said this Court would ask a question. If the Government School was named as “Tribal School”, then what would be the impact in the society? It was painful that even in the 21st century the Government was allowing to use such words in its run schools, functioning from and out of public money, the bench added.
The bench said Tamil Nadu, being a forerunner state in social justice, cannot allow such stigmatic words to be added as ‘prefixes’ or ‘suffixes’ in the name of the Government Schools or any Government institutions. In this regard, the Chief Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu has to initiate appropriate action, the bench added.
