Tapi Education Dept issues circular against ‘religious activities on school premises’
Circular says precautions should be taken to prevent undesirable incidents based on religion
4 min read
The move which aims to streamline the RTE admissions, came as thousands of seats under the RTE Act continue to go vacant. (File Photo)The Tapi district Education Department office, based on the instructions of District Collector Vipin Garg, issued a circular to all the primary and secondary government schools to ensure that “religious activities should not be carried out on school premises” by students as well as teachers and “strict action” should be taken against the violators, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The development came after the district administration reportedly received “memorandums” stating that “certain religious-based activities are being carried out in schools by students and in some cases by teachers” and through several social media posts.
The District Collector had issued the circular to Tapi District Education Officer (DEO) Dharaben Patel and District Primary Education Officer (DPEO) Varshaben Vasava on April 16. The DEO and DPEO in turn shared the circular with all the primary, secondary and higher secondary schools in Tapi on Saturday.
“It has come to the notice, through the posts on social media platforms and memorandums submitted to the district administrative authorities, that certain religious-based activities are being carried out in the secondary and primary schools in the district by students and in some cases, by teachers. Strict vigilance should be maintained in relation to such issues to ensure that they do not happen,” stated the circular.
“The school authorities — principals, teachers, and other top officials should ensure that if such activities are being carried out, they should be stopped and the same does not happen in future,” said the circular. The religious-based activities include “prayers, hymns based on any specific religion, preaching activities, religious knowledge, and religious books for the propagation of the particular religion” , said the circular.
“The school authorities should also ensure that no illegal religious activities, gatherings or meetings are held in or around the school premises which may cause disturbance to the studies or other school activities. No unauthorised religious structures should be constructed on school campuses. Apart from this, no religious images, photos, symbols should be displayed in the classrooms or in the schools,” added the circular.
“To maintain social harmony on the school campus and to prevent undesirable incidents based on religion, all the precautions should be taken. If any such activities are found in the school, strict actions should be taken,” the circular said further.
DEO Dharaben Patel told The Indian Express, “We have issued a circular to different schools in the district and instructed that the points mentioned in it should be strictly followed.”
“I have been in Tapi for the last two years, and there are many staffers who have been in service for 15 years or more. We have not come across any such incidents wherein a certain religion is being propagated in the schools. We have not received any such complaints from parents or students either.” the DEO said.
“We celebrate festivals of different religions under Sarva Dharma Sambhav to maintain communal harmony in the schools. We have given clear instructions to the schools not to relate education to language, caste, or religion. We have also sent the circular to senior teachers and principals through WhatsApp as well,” Patel added. “In the coming days, we will carry out surprise inspections and if anybody is found violating the instructions, strict actions will be taken against those responsible for it,” the DEO said further.
District Collector Vipin Garg did not respond to repeated phone calls to get his remarks over the issue.
Recently, noted Ram Kathakar and spiritual leader Morari Bapu, while addressing a religious gathering in Tapi district’s Songadh taluka had expressed “grave concerns about the religious conversions” in the district. During an event, the leader had reportedly received a note claiming religious conversations were allegedly being carried out in schools. “Christian Missionaries are allegedly converting tribal people by offering free education in the tribal areas. The teachers are getting salaries from the government and they are propagating a certain religion in the school,” the leader alleged while quoting the note.
Meanwhile, a Primary and Secondary School Principal Association member, on the condition of anonymity, said, “We have not come across any such religious activities in the district schools till date. The religious conversion activities are done but not at the school level … in other ways.”
There are over 159 secondary and higher secondary schools and more than 1000 primary schools in Tapi district.
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